Traffic police authorities in the south China tropical city have crossed out all the unlucky fours from its pool of number plates, as four, a Chinese homonym of "death", is considered a taboo by most car owners.

New measures taking effect as of Monday, August 6, allow car buyers in Haikou, capital of China's southernmost island province Hainan, to choose from a batch 10 numbers that are randomly displayed on the computer system but do not contain the number four.

"The move was aimed at improving efficiency and attending to public needs, as many car buyers would rather wait for days to avoid a four in their number plates," said Huang Haipeng, a spokesman with Haikou's traffic police bureau.

This has caused car plates with fours to stack up, with more than 1,000 unwanted numbers that take up space in the database and slow down the car plate application process, Huang said at a press conference on Wednesday.

After the fours were crossed out, he said more than 100 new cars were being registered daily, a sharp increase from the daily maximum of 80 cars in the past.

The move, though applauded by most car owners in Haikou, also sparked criticism from people who said a government agency should not advocate superstition.

"It's ridiculous," said Mr. Liang, a musician in Haikou who said he actually wanted a 4, which, as a musical note, sounds exactly the same as the Chinese word for fortune. "Public prejudice against number four is groundless, and the government should not back such superstitious ideas."

Some citizens also worry that without the fours, the number pool might soon fall short of the growing car fleet in the provincial capital.

But Huang dismissed such worries by saying at least 40 million numbers will be available even without the fours. "It won't exhaust the pool."

Haikou, a city with more than 1 million people, currently has 200,000 motor vehicles, he said.

As the news of Haikou's elimination of fours spreads across China, people in many other cities are hoping their local governments will do the same.

But Beijing's traffic management authorities on Wednesday ruled out the possibility for the capital city to follow suit anytime soon.

Starting in July, Beijing allowed car buyers the freedom to choose from a batch of 10 numbers, instead of being given a number. But almost everyone sits still when numbers containing four are displayed on the LED screen. "They simply wait for their favorite numbers to pop up, particularly those with six, eight and nine," said an officer on condition of anonymity.

These three are considered lucky numbers in Chinese, because they stand for smooth, fortune and eternity respectively.

Shenzhen, a boom city in the southern Guangdong Province, stopped issuing new number plates with fours in 2004.

Every year, Guangzhou auctions the so-called lucky number plates, sometimes for nearly 200,000 yuan each, about the price of a Honda Accord in China.

These auctions often draw crowds of the new rich who want only lucky numbers for their BMWs, Mercedes and other big-name sedans.

(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2007)