Crazy 8s Airport Motel

Wednesday night I had an unexpected layover at Shanghai's Pudong Airport.  It wasn't entirely my fault because I got there in plenty of time, but the line was long and was moving quite slowly.  As the departure time approached, I was still 15 or 20 people back.  There was no sense of urgency, so I figured the flight would simply be delayed, as the China Eastern flight to Bangkok often is.

It turns out that the reason no one in line was in a panic was because everyone else in line was on a flight to Paris which departed an hour after mine.  It may have been partly my fault, but there was never any announcement or staff holding up a sign to say that the BKK flight counter was about to close.  Fortunately, the China Eastern staff took pity on me and booked me on the next day's early flight, and helped me out with a hotel room at the Motel 168, which is connected to the Airport.

This was the beginning of my Crazy 8s Motel odyssey.  You may already know that "8" is a lucky number in China and among Chinese around the world.  At the bottom of this blog, I pasted a short article with a little background on this auspicious number.

Here's the front entrance of the Motel, and where I first took notice of the strong presence of Chinese numerology.  The number "8" is obviously in the name along with "16", which is 8 + 8 (or 4 x 4 and 4 + 4 = 8).  There are also 8 letters/ digits in the name - Motel 168.

But that was just the beginning...

The prices for the rooms are all ended in "-88" RMB instead of the more common "-99"

My room number was 8227, but it was on the 2nd floor.  You guessed it - all room numbers started with the number "8" and the 2nd number indicated what floor you were on.

By now, it's no big surprise that there are only 8 floors.  But after a second look - there are actually only 7 floors!  What happened to the 4th floor?   Take out your Chinese Numerology handbook and you'll find that "4" is as inauspicious as "8" is auspicious since "4" is pronounced "si", which is also the same word for "death" in Chinese.

 
The Feng Shui Masters were also involved with the interior design.  The hallway carpets were littered with "8s"

As was the carpet in my hotel room.

This may be a bit of a stretch, but after what I had seen already, I'm convinced the round bed and the circular impression in the ceiling represent some kind of detached 8.

The bathroom had two "8s"

After a while the "8s" were appearing everywhere - this was taken from the sky lounge, where a green ceiling lamp was reflecting in two angled panels of glass.

Finally, the entire hotel was shaped like an "8" with the Sky Lounge in the middle connecting the two spheres at a single point.

Here's an aerial view I took from GoogleEarth with Motel 168 in the middle.

More info on 8

For Chinese the number 8 is considered lucky just like the number 7 is considered lucky in the West. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the Olympic games in China start on August 8, 2008 or 08/08/08. In China you have to pay extra to have the number 8 in your phone number or license plate. In addition, home and business owners like to have the number 8 in their address.

So, why is the number 8 considered lucky in the minds of Chinese people. The main reason has to do with the pronunciation of the word for the number 8 in China. It is pronounced "ba" and sounds like the word for prosperity which is pronounced "fa". Another reason why the number 8 could be considered lucky is because it is a perfect symmetrical shape. You can cut the number 8 in half vertically or horizontally, and both halves mirror themselves perfectly. Perfect symmetry lends itself to perfect balance. In Chinese Astrology, perfect balance is considered the ideal.

On the date 08/08/08 there is predicted to be a record number of weddings, even surpassing the number of weddings on 07/07/07. According to Chinese Astrology, the date 08/08/08 is in the year of the Rat, the month of the Monkey and the day of the Dragon. It just so happens that the Rat, Monkey and Dragon are in the same affinity group or trine. That means the three Chinese Zodiac animal signs are perfectly compatible with each other. Therefore, the date 08/08/08 will be especially lucky for Rats, Monkeys and Dragons.