In Chinese communities around the world, eight (8) is considered the most fortuitous of numbers, making it much coveted for addresses, phone numbers and bank accounts, as the Chinese’s and Cantonese’s articulation and pronunciation for eight (ba for Mandarin and paat for Cantonese) sounds similar to the word that signifies ‘prosperity’ (fa for Mandarin and faat for Cantonese).

My dentist is Chinese and his license plate is all 8s. I asked him one time for the reason and he pretty much told me exactly what the above quoted website says.

He reiterated that today – I was at his office giving him and his staff a training from my agency that he had requested – he then told me that in China such a license plate would cost a million dollars. “Here, it’s (practically) free,” he laughed.

And, then I told him about my car – you might remember my posting a photo when my odometer turned 70000 (January 24, 2006). Well, as I was driving to his office to give the training, I just had to pull over because my odometer turned 88888. Yes, I took a picture:

 

Pretty doggoned cool, huh?

btw – I LOVE my dentist. He is so much fun!