The Chinese (and the Japanese; maybe the Koreans, too) have taboo numbers that they'll try and avoid.
The biggest-taboo number is 4 (四 sì), because it sounds a bit like "死 sǐ / die, death" -- just a difference in the tone.
An obvious situation to avoid it is when it appears in a car registration number. Most Chinese people would not want to tempt fate by driving a ton of steel around with "4 [/ death]" on it. They'd get it changed, even if it's at great expense.
In Japanese, the number 4 is read as よん / yon, as well as し / shi, which also sounds like "die / 死ぬ / shi-nu, death", so (from googling) Quote is mostly avoided in daily life, though it is still used in certain fixed phrases and formal contexts Unquote.
For my SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) BA degree course Special Subject, Japanese, one of the set texts was A Topical History of Japan. In one of the chapters, mention was made of four men (in medieval Japan), with the reading for "the four men" being yo-nin / "four persons", because shi-nin sounds like "dead persons".
Given my love of punning, I remember thinking at the time, "Well, if one were to read it wrongly, it wouldn't make any difference anyway, because they are indeed all dead."
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