Why do Taiwanese buildings often relabel the 4th floor as the 5th?

Question

Weirdo · Accepted Answer

Because "four" sounds like "death" in Chinese, some buildings skip 4 on elevators and door plates, jumping straight from 3 to 5. The floor still exists — only its name was swapped.

Structurally every floor is there, and fire-safety and building plans still count the real levels. The skip only happens in public-facing labels: elevator buttons, door plates, sales floor plans.

Door plate numbering follows administrative rules, but what a building calls its floors internally is mostly convention and marketing. One building can carry two systems at once — "plan floors" and "elevator floors" — so ask which one before you go hunting.

Why do Taiwanese buildings often relabel the 4th floor as the 5th?

What's missing is a name, not a floor

Is that even allowed?