LUCKY 8 PLATE

Although the current numerological superstitions originated in the south of China, there is plenty evidence of their hold in the north.

In Beijing, a hefty premium is paid for telephone numbers with plenty of eights, while apartments on the eighth floor are much coveted. Fourth floors, in name at least, rarely exist.

Apartment blocks designed to appeal to western buyers and prosperous Chinese often register no floors four, 13 and 14.

Expectant mothers in China are known to pick the dates of Caesareans carefully in order to endow their offspring with the luckiest birth date possible.

Back down south in Hong Kong, businessmen have paid huge sums for personalised car registration and in the 1990s the number '8' licence plate was sold for HK$5 million (343,308 pounds).

But China is not alone in its superstitions.

To some Europeans, Athens looked to be flirting with fate when the 2004 Olympics was scheduled to open the evening of Friday, August 13.

Every Greeks knows, however, that it is not Friday but Tuesday -- the day Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453 -- that is unlucky and the opening ceremony was a glittering success.

When Beijing decided the cost of a roof on their Olympic Stadium was prohibitive, they were relying on good fortune to prevent the August rains ruining their opening party.

"We are considering what to do if it rains," Beijing Games construction office chief Jun Yuan said in March. "But I'm really hoping August 8, 2008, will be a propitious day."