The lift at 1009 Expo Blvd in Vancouver goes directly from the 12th floor to the 15th. The omission of the 13th caters to Western superstitions. The absent 14th acknowledges an Eastern anxiety. The numeral four sounds in Mandarin and Cantonese like the word for death. Fourteen sounds like "certain death"; 24 is "easy death". 1009 Expo is missing the fourth, 24th and 34th floors as well. Developers in Vancouver have been building four-free apartment blocks for a decade to attract Chinese buyers, among the biggest customers for luxury condominiums and a prime cause ofaboomin property prices. The city will not change street names but is relaxed about house numbers: 224 can become 223B. Some multicultural neighbourhoods elsewhere in Canada have also forsworn fours. Richmond Hill, a suburb of Toronto, banned the number on new houses a few years ago.
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