In celebrating its user base breaking 500,000, Sichuan Suining Mobile, an affiliate of China Mobile, has held a mobile phone number auction to raise funds for local charity organizations.

In order to raise more funds for the Suining Charity Union to help the poor, China Mobile Sichuan Suining Branch auctioned nine special mobile phone numbers, and it donated 60% of the auction profit worth about CNY53,841 to charity organizations including Suining Charity Union and Suining Special Education School.

The mobile phone numbers are said to be very lucky ones and one was sold for over CNY150,000. In China, numbers like 8 and 9 are considered auspicious, while a number like 4 is considered very unlucky. Because of this, phone numbers containing multiple 8's or 9's are more desired than numbers with too many 4's.