Chinese Superstitions to enter a Hotel Room! Last February, my mum and sister both flew to the UK to visit us. While they were here, we all went on a road trip to Scotland. You can read more about our Scotland trip with Barny here.
We stayed at Premier Inn throughout our holiday at various locations. The last location was Edinburgh, where we happened to have opposite rooms to my sister. I noticed that my sister went through her hotel routine. She knocked on the door and said we are just sharing the room with you for two nights, thank you. This triggered memories for me when I was younger I was told that I must do this hotel routine and I had forgotten! Okay, not really. I never knock the door but each time I go into the hotel room, I will inform ‘them’ quietly that we will be sharing ‘their’ room. Mr C does not believe in these Chinese superstitions thing! He thinks I am totally crazy to do this!
I had two separate unpleasant ghost experiences while staying in a hotel with him while we were in Italy and Japan. So he was used to me doing such crazy things while in a hotel room. I don’t practise these superstitions as much as I used to be because both of my children had started questioning my bizarre behaviour.
Without further ado, these are the rituals and superstitions a lot of Chinese follow and believe in:
1. Knock the door 3 times before you enter
This is to inform the ‘owner’ / spirit that you hope they respect your stay and we mean no harm.
When entering the room for the first time, you should walk in sideways to give ‘them’ space to pass through if they decide to let you have the room.
2. Turn on all the lights and open all the curtains and windows
This is to fill the room with positive energy (yang). Hotels are classified as yin, so by getting the yang into the room will balance the yin and yang.
3. Flush the toilet and open the shower curtain
To get rid of any negative energy in there. Chinese believe that toilets are negative places because chi (good energy) is similar to water and is escaping down the pipes and drains.
4. Leave your shoes the wrong way round
This is to ensure the spirit will not wear it and track you down. Leaving shoes the wrong way round will confuse the spirit.
This is a tip that I learnt from my friend J. Ng. She said the spirit will wear it and follow you home. I am a very neat person and I can’t stand any mess but for this, I always kick both shoes in a different direction. If my children put it neatly, I will ‘accidentally’ kick it apart to mess it. But there is a story on Mr Zhou’s Ghost Stories on 22 February 2019, he left his shoes in a mess, the next morning, all his shoes were neatly placed on the floor.
Don’t place your slippers next to your bed when sleeping.
5. Never sleep opposite a mirror
This is my number one hate in hotel! Why they always put a huge mirror opposite the bed!
In feng shui, they mentioned that a mirror facing the bed directly depletes your personal energy when you need it the most.
From what I heard from my friend is that you will frighten your soul when you wake up and see your reflection. To get ‘rid’ of the mirror, I used to put my luggage in front of it or cover it with a towel before I sleep.
6. Leave the Bible or any holy book alone
If you happen to see the book that the book is open, don’t close it. They are open for a good reason. I learnt this ‘tip’ from watching too many ghost horror movie. I remember watching one movie where the actor closed the book and it broke the spell which released the ghost!
As mentioned earlier, a few years ago, I had trouble staying in a hotel in Japan with Mr C. So I opened two holy books that I could find in the room and placed them in each corner. Only since then did I have a good nights sleep.
7. Avoid staying on the 4th floor
Chinese believe number four means death in Chinese. You might notice that some Asian hotels do not come with a level four or door number starting with four. In many cultures people like to avoid the number 13 because it’s associated with bad luck and Hong Kongers like to avoid 7th floor. It is the same kind of reasons.
8. Put your belongings on the spare bed if you travel alone
Whenever I had to travel alone, I would place all my belongings on the spare bed so that I am not inviting any ‘lost soul’ to be in the room with me.
If you are alone and the hotel gives you two single beds, you have to mess up the bed that you are not sleeping in. You can either place your luggage bags or mess up the bedsheet and blanket to inform ‘them’ that someone is using it and to not bother you. Never put a set of clothing (top and trousers etc.) on the bed to form a ‘人’ ren shape. (According to a story on Mr Zhou’s Ghost Stories podcast 13th September 2019 at 12 minutes).
I will also sleep with light on and TV! Spirits dislike crowds as they will have lots of strong energy. I am trying to create an atmosphere to cheat my stay!
9. Avoid staying in a corner room or opposite the staircase
‘They’ tend to gather in a corner room as corner rooms tend to be more spacious. As for the staircase, most hotel staircases do not come with windows and there is no sunlight able to pass through there. Hence this area is very ‘yin’. It becomes their entrance/exit.
10. Luggage bags
Don’t take everything out of your luggage bags. Leave some clothing inside and never leave it empty to avoid bringing them back. Also, pack your luggage in bright daylight and not during night time.
Do you have any particular hotel routine? Do you have any experience or tip you would like to share with me? Some people suggest sprinkle salt at all corners, whilst some would bring a new umbrella, open it in the room, close it and leave the umbrella outside the room. Always check under your bed, just in case. (Someone found a body hidden under their hotel bed, Mr Zhou’s Ghost Stories podcast 8th March 2019)
Not seen these trditions in China. Where abouts are you from? I spent most of my time in Shandong so maybe it’s a regional thing. Also as a Scot who thoroughly enjoyed China I really hope you liked Scotland
Hi, I’m a Chinese from Singapore. Not been to China before. Scotland is brilliant place. Love the Scottish accent.
I work in the tourism industry and we are currently expanding into the Chinese market to bring tourists here to our beautiful Scotland. I found the hotel superstitions extremely interesting!! This is something I will be sharing with my colleagues to help us understand the Chinese culture a bit better 🙂 Thank you!
Nice post, enjoyed reading it , some of them I already know and heard about it
That’s fascinating. I already did a few of these anyway, but I am a terrible sponge for superstitions so I will probably be following all of these from now on!
I think the flushing of the toilet is good. I think the reason should be used everywhere, as well as closing the lid- does that have the same effect. I think the men of my house might start putting the seat down and closing the lid if they had a reason for doing so!
Fascinating post. It turns out that a few of these, like placing belongings on the spare bed and opening all the curtains I do anyway. Now I only need to knock before entering!
Though I am not Chinese and didn’t realise it was a Chinese custom I also have to cover the mirror if its facing the bed and have no mirror in the bedroom at home. My husband thinks im crazy for doing it. I also greet a magpie if its alone. I dont pass on stairs either 🙂
wow this is so interesting! I have a few superstitions (magpies and drains!) x
I don’t have superstitions, but I do make a habit of reading the fire escape notice, as the one time I didn’t the fire alarms went off!
I out my things on the roars bed but more if ease of use.
Interesting superstitions
lol, I couldn’t be doing all that! I’m not very superstitious and prefer to walk into my hotel room and relax. 🙂
Sounds interesting! We don’t have any superstitions like this but my fiance family belives in some spirits living in the drains, so you should not flush your sink with boiling water. And I think there is something about not crying in the toilet 😉
I hadn’t heard of all these superstitions so found your post really interesting. I loved reading it.
That’s really interesting, so many superstitions I’ve not heard before.
I am superstitious but never heard of any of these. I like the idea of filling the room with positive energy
i’m not superstitious at all, but i love reading things like this!
Superstitions always fascinate me! This was a great read. I did a Feng Shui class many moons ago, and learned about the mirror thing – we have mirrors on the wardrobes in our bedroom – I HATE them!! At first opportunity they are going.
I also new about the number 4, similarly, I know number 8 is a good number – I use that number a lot!
I don’t think I have any rituals when it comes to staying in hotel rooms, other than taking photos of it for trip reports and reviews and pinching all the tea, coffee and biscuits to take home if we don’t use them mwahahaha
Love hearing about superstitions, these seem less bizarre than some of the English ones. My only hotel routine, is pinching the hot chocolates to bring home!! Shhh! 😉
This is really interesting. I’m not superstitious but I love reading about other traditions and rituals!
This is so interesting! I don’t have any superstitions like this but I do take on board some of the things from movies, I watch a lot of action movies so I’m always aware when standing near windows – just on the off chance that there is a sniper!! lol. I also cover my webcam incase of people hacking and using it to spy. I know it’s unlikely, but I rather be safe than sorry!
Remind me never to share a hotel room with you! Seriously though, a very interesting post. I find that I’m getting more superstitious as I get older
I love these…especially turning the shoes round, I’m going to start doing this when I stay in hotels now!!
How interesting to read….I’m not superstitious and do nothing like anything you have mentioned but it is fascinating to read about 🙂 x
I don’t have any rituals like this but I am not really superstitious! It sounds like a lot of hard work trying to remember everything!
Chinese traditions are fascinating, but there are so many! I think a lot of superstitions come from reasons we can all understand, but our way of explaining them is very different. I’m not sure you should believe what you see in movies though 😀