香港——周日，香港的一张机动车牌照以1810万港元的拍卖价格成交，创下香港车牌价新高。该牌照仅包含数字28，在粤语中的发音接近“易发”。
HONG KONG — A vehicle license plate in Hong Kong sold at auction for 18.1 million Hong Kong dollars on Sunday, or $2.3 million, the highest price ever paid in the city. The plate carries the number 28, which in Cantonese sounds similar to a phrase for “easy money.”
车牌新主人的身份一时还不清楚。据香港媒体《东方日报》(Oriental Daily News)报道，那位竞拍者还以135万港元拿下了另一个印有数字232的无字头车牌。他表示自己是帮别人竞拍，并没有透露那人是谁。
The new owner of the plate was not immediately clear. The bidder, who also snatched the license plate 232 for $174,000, said he was representing another party, whom he did not name, according to Oriental Daily News, a Hong Kong newspaper.
香港在1973年引入车牌拍卖，所获资金用于慈善。最受追捧的车牌包括数字2到10（数字1为警务处处长专用），以及比较吉利的数字组合。它们往往被香港最富有和最显赫的一些人纳入囊中。
The city introduced bidding for coveted license plate numbers in 1973, with the money going to charity. The most desired plates, which include the numbers 2 through 10 (1 is reserved for the police commissioner) and combinations of auspicious digits, are owned by some of the city’s richest and most prominent people.
1994年，珠宝、地产和娱乐业大亨杨受成(Albert Yeung)曾以1300万港元买下一个印有数字9的无字头车牌，创下当时的最高纪录。最近的最高车牌价是2008年以1650万港元成交的一个印有数字18的车牌。
In 1994, the jewelry, property and entertainment tycoon Albert Yeung bought 9 for what was then a record of $1.6 million. The most recent peak license price was $2.1 million for 18, in 2008.
10年前，香港开始允许使用包含各种字母排列的自选牌号，催生了一大批如MCDADDY、XBATMANX和WHATEVER的个性车牌。
Ten years ago, Hong Kong began to allow a wide array of vanity plates using letters of the alphabet, which triggered a rush of vehicular declarations like MCDADDY, XBATMANX and WHATEVER.
数字28会让车主更容易发财吗？答案就像该车牌新主人的身份一样，并不清楚。不过，香港中文大学的吴嘉豪(Travis Ng)、庄太量(Terence Chong)和杜新（音）2009年发布的一项研究发现，包含8等吉利数字的三位数车牌会溢价95%。而且股市越差，溢价越高：恒生指数每降1%，车牌就溢价11%。
Will 28 bring easy money? The answer is as uncertain as the identity of its new owner. But a 2009 study by Travis Ng, Terence Chong and Xin Du at the Chinese University of Hong Kong found that for three-digit license plates, including a lucky number such as 8 brought a price premium of 95 percent. The premium got bigger the worse the stock market did, jumping 11 percent for each 1 percent decline in the benchmark Hang Seng Index.
相应地，不吉利的数字会使车牌贬值。数字4在粤语里的发音接近“死”，含这个数字会让一个四位数车牌贬值27%，且恒生指数每次下滑，都会把价格进一步拉低。
Likewise, unlucky numbers brought down the price. The presence of a number 4, which is a homonym for “death,” brings down the value of a four-digit plate 27 percent, and the price drops further with each fall in the Hang Seng.
“4不是个好数字，但是在经济不景气时，它会显得更糟，”他们在这篇研究论文中表示。
“A ‘4’ is bad, but it is even worse in bad times,” they wrote.