Globaliser

Yes, which is why it's no surprise to see no gate 14 now (and no surprise that there was no gate 14 before). It's a little more surprising that having apparently acknowledged this about 14, there are gates 4, 24 and 44 (in particular).

sxc

Top of climb

14 is considered more unlucky because it can be pronounced in a way that transliterates to "will certainly die", rather than 4 which is just "die".

Note that the NSC renumbering does not take effect until the bridge from the main concourse is built. The only changes happening at the end of the month are renumbering 15-22 to 5-12. The NSC gates will remain numbered 501+ (reflecting the fact that the bus to the NSC continues to leave from level 5).

adrianlondon

Not sure about Cantonese, but in Mandarin the number 4 is unlucky however no-one I know cares about 14.

Could just be random that 14 was left out:
https://www.checkerboardhill.com/201...ate-numbering/

"Gate 9 and 14 didn’t fit into the ’10 gates on the north and south concourse’ pattern."

Nicc HK

4,14,44 all bad news in Cantonese and Mandarin. Simplistically, putting two words together creates 'very ****'', so 44 is 'very dead'.

Thats is why in many Chinese owned buildings, especially hotels and apartment blocks there is often no numbered 4th or 14th Floor, even if there is obviously a 4th or 14th Floor.

Nicc HK.

MKE-MR

Will they also remove the signs pointing to gates up to 80 when there are not and have never been any gates numbered beyond 71?

sxc

This is an interesting blog post that explains the history of HKG gate numbering.

https://www.checkerboardhill.com/201...ate-numbering/

It seems according to the blog post, that they just liked the idea of having signs that said "1-80"

DragonSoul

I'm not superstitious so I don't get the whole 4, 14, etc. as being unlucky because it sounds like another word, but I find it amusing that people are worried about those numbers but not the number 5, which is very bad in Chinese numerology. Guess people pick the superstition they prefer. Ż\_(ツ)_/Ż

sxc

I also wonder how Norman Foster feels about how HK has messed up his masterpiece. From being an airy streamlined airport experience, to being the base for a bunch of bolt-ons which aren't entirely sympathetic to the original architecture.

Additionally, the roof of the airport is pretty dirty these days - I don't think there's ever been an effort to clean it.

Nicc HK

Agreed on superstition. Though I thought 5 could be both good and bad, in that it relates to the 5 elements (good side) and relating to 'without' on the bad side. Bit like 7 can be both depending on situation.

Agreed on airport experience. Exiting immigration HKIA becomes a shopping nightmare straight out of Heathrow's dreams, and the recent construction on the upper level in the food halls, well no need to comment. Horrible.

kaka

Traditionally in Hong Kong only 13/14 is skipped and that's it (90s and before when private residential buildings weren't that tall). 4, 24, 34 are kept so you only skip 2 numbers out of maybe 30ish floors of a block.
as buildings grew taller they skip all sort of numbers as the developer sees fit. 1 building recently skipped x4. 4x, 5x and 7x so they can sell a few flats on 88th floor.

However, HKIA (in 1998) only skipped 14 with clever planning of the gates (well, along with 9, 37-39, 5x).

Now they are just messing with it so it would feel like their beloved NSC is part of the main concourse, which is, of course, an effing con.

Had you need to go from 4 to old 19 (or 1/2 to old 19... 4 is on the far end of the arm and most people wont go there; 1/2 is where the CX lounge is... and its common for CX flight to leave at old gate 17-19/ new 7-9), it would be obvious that it may take you some time. 1/2 to new 7-9, not so obvious.
Same applies to new 12 to new 13 via the footbridge (and new 12 to 23 neighbouring gate)

fairhsa

This actually seems to make a lot of sense.

kaka