Flowers

Flowers are a universally recognized way of expressing love around the world, but in China they can have a double meaning that is based on the number of flowers given. As I have posted before, numbers have great meaning in Chinese culture. Any amount sends a positive message, but a particular number of flowers can be used to send a hidden one.

1 Flower: "I love you and only you", "You are the only one for me"

2 Flowers: "I just think of you and me", "Its just you and me"

3 Flowers: A simple "I love you"

4 Flowers: "I promise you love" As I said before, 4 is an unlucky number for Chinese, so clarify in a card or avoid using this amount.

5 Flowers: "I have no regrets being with you"

6 Flowers: "I hope everything goes well for you"

7 Flowers: "I feel happy with you"

8 Flowers: "Im sorry, please forgive me" Used for saying you're sorry.

9 Flowers: "I will love you forever without regret"

10 Flowers: "You are the perfect lover"

11 Flowers: "I will love you for the rest of my life", "Your happiness is my only priority"

12 Flowers: "Our souls are forever connected"

13 Flowers: "You have a secret admirer"

15 Flowers: "Im sorry" Same as 8.

17 Flowers: "Lets leave each other on good terms" Used for breaking up.

18 Flowers: "I have a sincere heart"

19 Flowers: "Im looking forward to spending time with you"

20 Flowers: "Forever loving you with an unchanging heart"

21 Flowers: "You are my love"

22 Flowers: "Lets be in love to no end"

24 Flowers: "I miss you, I am always thinking about you"

25 Flowers: "Good Luck"

30 Flowers: "Our love goes beyond words"

33 Flowers: "I will love you for many years to come"

36 Flowers: "My heart belongs to you"

44 Flowers: "I promise you my steady love"

50 Flowers: Same as 5.

55 Flowers: Also the same as 5.

56 Flowers: "My love"

60 Flowers: "May our love be strong and stable"

66 Flowers: "Our love is true and steady"

77 Flowers: "Destiny brought us together"

88 Flowers: "I want to make it up to you" Used to say sorry.

99 Flowers: "I want to be with you forever"

100 Flowers: "Im in love with you 100%"

101 Flowers: "You are my only love"

108 Flowers: "Will you marry me?"

123 Flowers: "Let us enjoy freedom and love"

144 Flowers: "I love you every day, of every month, of every year, of every century"

365 Flowers: " I think of you every day", "I love you everyday of the year"

999 Flowers: "Our love is infinite"

1001 Flowers: "Faithful love forever"

10,000 Flowers: "May our love last for 10,000 years" 10,000 essentially means forever in East Asian cultures. Giving 10,000 flowers is the ultimate expression of compassionate love in Chinese culture. If you can afford it, no Chinese girl will turn you down. (Except for this guy)


Color is also has double meaning in flowers. Red is your best bet, so is pink, yellow is also good, avoid white as it symbolizes death.

Happy Valentines Day

Lucky Numbers

Chinese can be very superstitious, even when it comes to things like numbers. Many buildings in China have missing floors. When numbering them, architects tend to skip floors with unlucky numbers. Below are some lucky and unlucky numbers. Note: the homophones are for Mandarin only, they may mean other things in other dialects.

2 (二 èr)
Two is a homophone for “Jade, Pearls, Luxuriant growth” symbolizing wealth. The phrase “good things come in pairs” is of Chinese origin. Two means a pair, meaning it is good.

3 (三 sān)
The character for the number three is similar to the one for birth (生 shēng), and is therefore associated with life.

4 (四 sì)
Four is the unluckiest of numbers, because it is associated with the word for death (sǐ). Many buildings in China don’t have any floors that contain the number 4 (4, 14, 24, 34 40–49).

5 (五 wŭ)
Five could be considered both lucky and unlucky. It is lucky because it is associated with the five elements in Chinese philosophy, but that’s a story for another day. It is unlucky because it is a homophone for “dirty, filthy, foul, insult, disobedient, disappoint, to hate, mistake”

6 (六 liù)
Six is quite lucky, as it is a homophone for “lovely, beautiful, gold, fluid”.

7 (七 qī)
Also considered the luckiest number in the west, seven can be considered lucky and unlucky. It is lucky because it can mean “peace, fine jade, neat, even, togetherness”. It is unlucky because the 7th month of the Chinese calendar is “Ghost Month”. Seven is also a homophone for “grief, mourning, coldness, ridicule, to abandon, to put to rest”

8 (八 bā)
Eight is perhaps the luckiest number in Chinese culture. It sounds similar to “prosper” (发 fā) and “wealth”. Two 8’s next to each other (88) bare a visual resemblance to the character for “double happiness” (囍). Some have gone to great lengths to use the number as much as possible for good luck.
• The United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Beijing is flight 888
• A man in Sichuan paid 元1.8 million for the phone number 888-8888
• A Hangzhou man offered to sell his license plate: A88888 for 元1.12 million
• The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur have 88 floors
• TD Bank’s Chinatown branch auctioned off the safe deposit box 888

9 (九 jiŭ)
Being the highest single digit number, nine is associated with royalty (.i.e. the Emperor) and is a homophone for “long lasting”. It might be etymology of the Kowloon peninsula in Hong Kong. Kowloon is Cantonese for “Jǐulóng” meaning “Nine Dragons”.

Combinations of numbers can also form homophones with hidden meanings. Some are a real stretch though.


88 (八八 bā bā)
Beyond the fact that 8 is lucky, "bā bā" sounds like "bye-bye" and therefore is often used to say goodbye when logging out of internet chat rooms.


520 (五二 wǔ èr)
Its a real stretch but some Chinese believe the word for 520 sounds like "I love [you]" (wǒ ài).


510 (五一 wǔ yī)
Another homophone for "I love you"


There are probably hundreds of others out there. Virtually any number or number combination can have some abstract meaning.