Freezing Point Special Issue 1186
Middle-aged weightlifting
Judging from any element in front of me, the "Wrist Power King" in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, is an "antique" gym: the equipment is rusted and the paint is rusted. The leather cushion of the bench has been worn for 20 years, and the yellow sponge is exposed. Without air conditioning, the humid and sultry rainy season, a green floor fan struggled to "shake his head" - that was the dowry of the boss lady.
Almost all of them come to the post-50s and post-60s. The 78-year-old Tang Genyuan is the oldest in this group of people, can bench press 240 kg weight, the chest muscles will shake. The practice method here is simple, and trouser belts, jeans, and leather shoes are common sports equipment. "It's iron, your young people call it'iron core' hard core." 53-year-old Zhou Zhonghua is used to wearing tights. Because of his muscularity, it is difficult for him to buy a shirt that fits the arm dimension.
In addition to exercise, they spend more time smoking, drinking tea, bragging about a square table, and the consumption is two or three hours. A small stainless steel bowl contains hundreds of cigarette butts.
Most of them experienced the laid-off wave of the 1990s, and later, some worked odd jobs; some became self-employed, and now have hundreds of millions of family property; some also experienced deception, bankruptcy, and divorce.
"I don't pursue muscles, I don't like to train my legs, I don't pursue dimensions." Zhang Lixun is the owner and the only staff of this store. He also serves as a coach, cleaner, security guard and cashier in the store. He summarizes the exercise goals of the members. , "Health is all right."
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The "Wrist Power King" gym is hidden on the second floor of the Huzhou Lotus Village Swimming Hall. The door is a square table against the wall and 6 chairs, facing the staircase. A huge poster on the wall is the only decoration.
The square table was made by Zhang Lixun himself 20 years ago-a shelf was welded under an obsolete mahjong table. The desktop can't discern the color, and there are dozens of mobile phones, keys for electric cars and cars, watches for tens of thousands of yuan, and black tea pots with black tea stains. 6 chairs have different shapes, some of the armrests are dropped by half, some of the "legs and feet" are unstable and easy to fall, and a "soft seat", but it is very easy to smoke ash. After a short period of time, Zhang Lixun wiped it with a rag.
This cramped 6 square meters is also a smoking area, pantry and lounge in the gym. The men wiped their sweat and rested here, spit smoke rings and chatted in Huzhou dialect, so loud that they could be heard on the first floor. "I'm here to practice my mouth and smoke," someone ridiculed.
Li Jian is a member who recently shared happy events at the square table. He is 48 years old and has been in the wine business for nearly 20 years. He started fitness 10 years ago and now he goes to the gym four or five times a week.
"At 7:10 yesterday evening, my daughter received a graduate admission letter." Li Jian handed a cigarette to people passing by the square table. "This year in 2019 is the pinnacle of my life. I bought a suite and bought one. Che, her daughter was admitted to graduate school, and all three major events from small to large are completed." Li Jian said.
"A Mercedes-Benz S350 with nearly 1 million yuan, a villa," the man beside added.
The epidemic squeezed the market's demand for alcohol. Li Jian said frankly that "no pressure is fake. Doing business depends mainly on how to adjust your mentality." He is keenly observing the disturbances in the market. For example, beer sales have continued to decline in recent years. He believes that this has a clear correlation with the decrease in the number of migrant workers. "Sales of bowled instant noodles are also declining." This is one of the arguments that supports his view.
"The chat outside is different from here. The outside is mainly business and customers." In addition to the necessary entertainment, Li Jian comes to the gym every day.
This square table also carries a lot of sadness. The 58-year-old Lao Jin is a patron of the gym. The first time he entered the "Wrist Power King" was 15 or 6 years ago. In January 2009, Lao Jin’s lover died of cancer and her daughter took the college entrance examination the same year.
When his daughter reached the age of marriage, he was more anxious than his daughter. Lao Jin now has time to cook a table for her daughter, and she will also send her friends to show her cooking skills. Friends in the gym knew, "He made a lot of dishes for his daughter, but the two talked very little."
The father and daughter sometimes quarrel, but most of the time he apologizes first, "Daughter is introverted and can't listen to heavy talk." He also thought that if he died of illness, his daughter might be happier now.
Three or four years after the death of his lover, Lao Jin stopped fitness. Now he is one of the most diligent members in the gym. He simply exercises with fast food after get off work every day. What the men know the most about him is his dead wife. They also cared about him in their own way-the dinner party must call him, ask one more question every day, have you eaten?
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Men who come here for fitness do not eat nutritious meals, do not believe in protein powder, and do not count the intake ratio of carbohydrates to protein. They firmly believe that muscles can only be "practiced", there is no shortcut. Zhang Lixun uses an "egg steamer" to steam eggs in the store every day and provides them to people who are hungry for fitness. 1.5 yuan per cooked egg.
"Eating together" is still the most important thing for men. Every once in a while, Zhang Lixun sends group notices in a membership group of more than 200 people, stating clearly when and where to eat, and the meal fee is AA. "There can be at least four or five tables. When there are many people, there are ten tables."
This gym is widely recognized as the "binder" for this group of people.
Most of the men have the same experience: after graduating from junior high school or high school, they line up in the middle of the night to take the recruitment test, and then enter the fertilizer factory, silk factory or food factory to work-those were the eighties and nineties of the last century An eye-catching unit of the age.
They have also been the trendiest youths of their time. Wearing flared trousers with "one leg wide and one foot wide", learning "Quick 3" dance steps, shopping for second-hand clothes in Hangzhou, Fujian and other places, watching a TV series in the video hall for 1 cent and 5 cents. Young people who have just started work have a monthly salary of about 21 yuan.
"At that time, after going home from get off work, I changed into a suit and went out, mostly to attract the attention of young women." 55-year-old Ji Wei recalled.
In the early 1990s, some began to stay without pay, and some were forced to stay in the factory. In the mid and late 1990s, the problem of laid-off workers in state-owned enterprises became an increasingly prominent economic phenomenon.
Hu Angang, a professor at the School of Public Administration of Tsinghua University, once pointed out in the article "China's Urban Unemployment and Social Security", "China's jobs are undergoing a process of creative destruction, destruction and creation coexist, but the speed of creation is far behind the destruction speed."
In 2001, 38-year-old Zhang Lixun left the fertilizer plant for 20 years. The unit "buys out" his seniority at a salary of 800 yuan per year, and with 16,000 yuan, he has to face the reality of unemployment. In the new year, Zhang Lixun's lover was also laid off.
At that time, Zhang Lixun did not understand what is meant by "middle-age crisis." He only knows that there was still a loan in the 80,000 yuan purchase of the house the previous year. His daughter's entrance examination was only 3 points away from the key high school. The "purchase money" of 10,800 yuan per year has not yet been settled.
"It's hard to find a job", and opening a gym is one of his few choices. Zhang Lixun was a member of the first batch of "bodybuilding teams" in this small town, because he became obsessed with the image of Bruce Lee and Stallone in the movie and began to exercise. The fitness site was originally in a temporary shed built by the Huzhou Federation of Trade Unions. Rain often leaks on rainy days. On sunny days, iron pieces hit the ground and raise a dust. Fitness knowledge comes from a magazine called "Health and Beauty". In the 1990s, he won the provincial and municipal champion of the wrist power competition, and the name of the gym was also derived from it.
The men who experienced the layoffs with Zhang Lixun drove large trucks from Huzhou to a place 2,000 kilometers away; some started up individuals, opened restaurants and shops; some started to do odd jobs, do sales, Be a security guard.
Unexpectedly, this gym opened for 20 years. Zhang Lixun expected that the gym will be open from 12 noon. However, the owner of the nearby aquatic shop has a black-and-white upside-down schedule—sleeping during the day, getting up at 7 in the evening, going to Hangzhou to buy at around 9 and selling the goods to small vendors at 1-6 in the morning. They are used to exercising around 7 o'clock in the morning.
Zhang Lixun matched a few keys in the store so that they could freely enter and exit the gym.
"In order to live a life of old age." Cheng Hong, one of the "early morning" members in the gym, said, "It is unrealistic to talk about ideals like our age. I hope that my retirement salary will be higher, my life will be more comfortable, and I will live two more lives. year."
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The annual card cost of "Wrist Power King" is 700 yuan, which has only increased by 100 yuan in 20 years. The gym still has "old-fashioned" equipment, and there are no "fresh" gadgets like treadmills, ellipsometers, and spinning bikes. Some of the equipment was made by Zhang Lixun himself. His most proud work was the rowing machine.
"Going out and turning left is the playground and the plastic runway. Isn't it good to run there?" Zhang Lixun suggested that members go downstairs for aerobic exercise. But in fact, the member's aerobic exercise is not enough. What does not match the developed chest muscles and biceps is the swollen belly. They do not evade this "body defect". When exercising naked, they patted their stomachs and mocked, "The place where the meat should not grow has grown meat", threatening to insist on skipping rope for 1 month.
There are no fashionable exercises such as "high-intensity intermittent training" in the "Wrist Force King". The "first training program" posted on the wall was made by Zhang Lixun. Write a 3-day training plan in 200 words. "Dumbbell" "Barbell", "push", and "lift" are the most frequent words. There is also a "Guest Notice" next to it. The payment date is August 18, 2002.
Some members have opened their own gyms, but they rarely do it for long. Men who come to exercise are accustomed to call the gyms other than the "Wrist Power King" as "high-end clubs". Those places are upscale and equipped with air conditioning, shower rooms, brand-new fitness equipment, and personal trainers.
Most of the people here have the experience of working out in high-end gyms in the past, but it didn't take long to come back here.
"Commercialization" is the most objectionable place for men. "It has been pushed since I entered the gym. The product is very annoying." "The private teacher is very thin. I want to teach him to practice." They "looked through the business models of those gyms"-relying on personal trainers to sell classes, one three to four hundred yuan, selling annual cards, the total price of 3,000 to 5,000 yuan, making people feel cost-effective.
What Zhang Lixun has to admit is that the newly opened gym has good hardware and he has lost most of his young members. "Wrist Power King" has no air conditioning and shower room, which is a short board in winter and summer. But he is also not optimistic about those gyms. "There are so many people who exercise, and now there are so many, the rent is only hundreds of thousands of yuan, most of them are lost." The facts also confirmed what he said. The new gym closed shortly after it opened, and there was a new restart after the closure.
But people who come to "Wrist Power King" for fitness do not just want it to be "cheap". Someone has calculated an account: If you drive to exercise, you will pay 5 yuan for parking every day, and consume half a pack of "Soft China" cigarettes. It takes 7000 yuan to calculate 200 days of exercise per year.
Middle-aged men prefer the convenience and freedom here. There is no need to pay attention to equipment here, trousers belts, plaid shirts, and a pair of thick-line labor protection gloves for two yuan can be seen everywhere. Some of them bought here from the morning market, took off their tops, and practiced several sets of boxer briefs. After the midfield or after the exercise, the men smoke here without worrying about the opposition and restraint of their families.
"You go to other gyms and wear leather shoes, is there a sense of disobedience?" Wang Xuyang, 49, said, "Although we are middle-aged and not so particular, but people should be grouped." In his view, those high-end Most of the gyms are young people wearing headphones, or "little young people are there to talk and love".
"Very restrained, not free, at least your shirtless exercise is not suitable." Ji Wei described the feeling of fitness in a high-end gym. He has been a coach at a driving school and has been a "Wrist Power King" for five years. He is one of the members with the highest attendance rate. "For example, if you are unhappy during the teaching process, come here to vent, and forget it after exercising."
Zhang Lixun put a refrigerator in the gym. But the refrigerator was not powered, and the small Bluetooth speaker, the disposable paper cup printed with "X and X Bank", and toilet water were all put inside by him. He turns on the water from the elderly fitness activity room downstairs every day and installs it in 6 plastic thermos pots to provide unlimited supplies to members. There are rows of hooks glued to the tiles on the wall, where men’s towels, clothes, and helmets are usually hung.
"Coach Zhang is quite real, and it's amazing to stick with it for so many years." At the small square table, the men smoked cigarettes to reach a "consensus". "But he has a problem. He still lives in his own time. He can't see this historical change."
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The 70-year-old Mei article was once the leader in the era. He worked as a fitter in a mineral company and took the initiative to go to the sea to do silk business in the 1980s.
He admitted that doing business was easy at that time, and he could earn tens of thousands of yuan by making silk once he changed hands with "information difference." In the early 1990s, he earned a maximum of 300,000 yuan a day. "It is impossible not to expand". He wears a 200-gram gold necklace. The ring on his hand is as big as a finger. The first month of "Big Brother" costs nearly 6,000 yuan.
The heavy hit came in 1993. In a silk export business, the other party owed more than 5 million yuan in sales and disappeared, and the hard work accumulated by Mei's article shook up. In his 40s, he decided to start over. "What's the use of seeking stability when you have little money? It's useless at all."
Today, his silk company is still in operation, but the benefits are not as good as before. The Internet makes information more transparent, and earning "information gaps" has long since lapsed. He feels that his advantage lies in the "time difference", and there is capital to advance, so that sellers and buyers have to transfer from him.
He bought several bakeries for his son, calculating the cost and business. This is an investment he made for the children. He no longer cares about his own business, "let it take its course and let it die."
Some people say that "Internet celebrities donate 100 million yuan, and those who start their businesses on the Internet make more money." Mei Wenwen said that after 50 years of age, he has a clearer understanding of his ability. He admitted that he could not keep up with the age of his son and daughter-in-law, but he did not feel lost, "I only compare with my generation."
78-year-old Tang Genyuan is still catching up with the times. At the age of 70, he contracted 300 acres of tea mountain and signed a 30-year contract. He now rides a battery car for 1 hour a day to check the mountain. In the gym, Tang Genyuan is usually shirtless, revealing developed chest muscles and thick arms, and a large bunch of keys hang on the belt of the trousers. He is the oldest person here and the goal of other men-"At that age, it's better to practice better than Lao Tang".
But more people are pushed forward by the times.
In 1994, Zhou Zhonghua laid off a passenger bus and drove from Huzhou City to the town. A few years later, with the increase of private cars, the effectiveness of passenger shuttles is not as good as before. He turned to drive a taxi until 2013. The prevalence of taxi-hailing software, coupled with the emergence of shared bicycles and electric vehicles, has made this small town with a "throttle-throttle slip across the street" less demand for taxis. The "golden age" of taxis seems to be over.
Subsequently, Zhou Zhonghua transformed into a driving school coach. He recalled that 10 years ago was the most beautiful time for driving school coaches. The monthly salary was 10,000 or 20,000 yuan, and the students "can't finish smoking cigarettes." Right now, there are more driving schools, and their income is not as good as before. In 2016, Zhou Zhonghua chose to drive a sprinkler, with less hard work and relatively decent income.
Zhang Lixun is a rare person who has not changed his profession in 20 years. He feels that "the rich is safe." A few years ago, he bought a car for his newly-worked daughter. He paid 60% of the house payment. The house was the name of his daughter. "The money I saved all my life was given to my daughter." He felt that this was the choice of almost all parents.
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When he retired at the age of 60, Tang Genyuan was defrauded of more than 6 million yuan. The other party borrowed money from him in the name of four cents of interest, but the last cent was not paid. "It's just too greedy for the immediate interests." Tang Genyuan concluded, he wasn't superstitious and reassured himself, "The money was not in his life."
"It all depends on "time"." The middle-aged man on the side said that in the 1980s and 1990s, his friend had worked in a silk factory, and his monthly salary was 100 yuan. His friend's brother was in an oil company. 30 yuan. Later, the younger brother was laid off and went to work as an electrician. The older brother's annual salary was millions. The middle-aged man emphasized again, "This is fortune."
Mei's article doesn't think so, "We don't have a high level of education, and we can't say any big theories. We all rely on our own thinking. If others can do it, why can't you do it?"
Sun Mingdong, 47, is a "young man" here and a rare "foreigner". He usually arrives at "Wrist Power King" before 12:30 noon and leaves before 2 pm. He and his wife and son run a barbecue restaurant, and the three are all employees of the restaurant. Working hours range from "open your eyes at 11 am to two or three in the morning."
Sun Mingdong said he was "bad luck" and had experienced two layoffs. For the first time in 1993, the unit gave him 140 yuan a month to buy out his two years of service. Immediately after that, 20-year-old Sun Mingdong entered the fleet of another company. Four years later, the team disbanded and he received a subsidy of 10,000 yuan. Later, in business, he lost more than 100,000 yuan. He drove trucks for others, and went to Shanghai from his parents’ Spring Festival eggs to earn 2,600 yuan a month.
In 2009, 36-year-old Sun Mingdong quit his job as a truck driver to open a barbecue stall in Huzhou. He thought about earning 20,000 yuan and going home. Within two months, the goal of 20,000 yuan was achieved. After paying off the debt, he took his lover to sit on the hard seat for 30 hours and returned to Huzhou.
In the first few years, they did not have a storefront and set up a stall outside the hospital. Sun Mingdong was most impressed by the heavy rain in the summer. The two guests were eating barbecue under the rain cover. He and his lover were standing in the middle of heavy rain. "I can't tell whether the face is sweat or rain."
"I am quite able to endure hardship and have a very happy life. Like last night, the towel on my shoulder was wet for more than three. It was really tired. The "enjoyment" was really beyond words." He never thought about it. For "retirement", he bought a house in Huzhou the year before, with a down payment of RMB 400,000 and a monthly mortgage payment of RMB 4,000. At the end of each month, he is used to "zeroing" the deposits of Alipay and WeChat accounts. The net income of the barbecue restaurant is deposited by him into a regular account. He described "like pouring water in a bucket into a water tank, bucket by bucket." Save".
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The conversation at the small square table is not always pleasant. When the atmosphere was awkward, Zhang Lixun became a "topic converter". Members like to make fun of him. Most of the time he is silent, and occasionally he says a few words, but he rarely gets angry.
"The forest is big and there are all kinds of birds." Zhang Lixun said, as long as the joke is not too much, he can mostly accept it.
Zhang Lixun is accustomed to open the door on time at 12 noon every day, with the dinner prepared by his lover in the lunch box. He spends at least 10 hours a day in the gym. On rainy days, few people come to the gym. He will go downstairs to the senior activity center to play billiards for a while. His social relations also almost revolve around the gym.
The people who come to exercise include bosses, civil servants, coaches, doctors, retired teachers, etc., and have established a "humane" acquaintance society. Everyone feels equal here.
Here, "opening for help" occasionally gets a response. Ji Wei works as a coach at the driving school. Every year, there is the task of the number of students. Zhang Lixun nailed his admission billboard in the most conspicuous place in the gym. Here occasionally there are high school students who have monthly or secondary cards and young people who are just working, and they are potential users of Ji Wei. Someone was worried about the deposit business of her daughter's bank. Say hello here, the member "not the richest person" did not say anything, transferred 950,000 yuan to the other party's card, no need to borrow.
But there are also big bosses with tens of millions of dollars, and tens of thousands of dollars are not borrowed. "Big bosses" have their own reasons, "There is more business, more cheating, more difficult to believe people." Gave his contact information to another gym. He has always called himself the most ardent member of "Wrist Power King".
Sun Mingdong admitted that after he turned 40, he began to "plan" his friends, and "won't think about it when he was young." "When you were young, the wine glasses were all friends. Now you need to understand who needs your time and who is worth making."
In 2014, Sun Mingdong rented a store and upgraded his barbecue stall to a barbecue restaurant. He found that the guests did not wait for them, they had to expand their circle of friends. According to his own interests, he joined an outdoor circle of young people. Occasionally go hiking and camping with everyone.
"For example, if you open a barbecue restaurant, people go to eat barbecue, you open a jewelry store, people buy jewelry, do you open a wreath shop, do people buy a wreath? This is unrealistic," Sun Mingdong said, operating different In business, we must contact different circles. "People can accept you."
Sun Mingdong now has his own set of "friend-making rules"-ignoring people who say good things in front of themselves.
"The brightest is the human heart, and the darkest is the human heart." This is one of the life experiences summarized in the 70-year-old Mei article. He said that there were only three or four of his true friends, most of whom he knew after the age of 50. "The values are similar, there is no interest and business dealings."
54-year-old Yang Hongwei has experienced company bankruptcy, and tens of millions of yuan in property have been reset to zero. In 2000, his zongzi business hit the Shanghai market, selling an average of 50,000 per day, with a net profit of 10,000 yuan. At that time, the house in Huzhou was more than 1,000 yuan per square meter. Instead of buying a house, he set a leapfrog development goal for the company, running into the frozen food market. A few years later, the company declared bankruptcy. He described himself as "having left Huzhou without anything and returned without anything." He wanted to borrow money to make a comeback, but none of the relatives he had helped lend him money.
"Understood, because they don't know if I can do it again." Yang Hongwei said that he will still be in contact with these relatives, but there will be no money exchanges.
In 2010, Yang Hongwei went to Xinjiang to engage in the construction industry, and stayed for five years. His career was tepid, and when he returned to the gym, someone asked, "Are you ready to rise again?" He replied, getting old, and now looking at his son's generation.
But during a dinner, the wine had gone through three tours, and he excitedly mentioned the past scenery. He also mentioned for the first time that if there is a suitable factory, he would like to try again. He said that he has been observing and analyzing the domestic dumpling market and is very confident in his craft.
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The middle-aged men of "Wrist Power King" claim to have "stepped into old age". After their children join the work, they are always ready to be upgraded to a "grandfather" generation.
When they met Zhang Lixun, they were mostly in their 30s or 40s. At that time, Zhang Lixun, who was practicing bodybuilding, was "wearing a vest and showing good-looking muscles" across the road and dumping garbage. "Who doesn't want to have muscle? Young man said."
Zhou Zhonghua and Zhang Lixun are the first batch of Huzhou to participate in the "bodybuilding team" in the 1980s. Zhou Zhonghua likes to go to the bathhouse at that time, because he can "show muscles, concave shape". Like most people, they became busy with their livelihoods after they started a family, suspended their fitness habits, and returned here after they turned 50. In addition to fitness, Zhou Zhonghua also likes drinking. He laughed at himself "drinking his teeth all over the floor", fell off his front teeth once, and lost his dentures several times.
Today, most middle-aged people who come to exercise say that "exercise is for health" and "no longer pursue dimension and muscle mass." Others admit that they are older and have slower muscle growth. The weight of the bench press has also been reduced from 200 to 140 pounds. In addition, middle-aged men no longer like to practice legs. People who have fitness experience understand that there are large muscle groups on the legs, and increasing leg training can help increase overall muscle mass and also burn more calories.
"The average leg is practiced once a month." Zhou Zhonghua said that a weight-bearing squat practice a few days ago made him unable to relax for a few days, "too tired." They also made an excuse for smoking-as they got older, they had to rest for half an hour after practicing for a while.
"I think everyone finds a youthful state in fitness, and even wants to compare with young people, and it's not hard to give up." Wang Xuyang said, "First, visually, at least not abdomen; second, when you are in the life circle, Compared with peers, it shows the advantage; the third is the attraction to the opposite sex."
78-year-old Lao Tang is a model in body management. Members found that whenever someone pointed out his bad body, Lao Tang would definitely strengthen his exercise.
But more people use it as a place to temporarily relax. Sun Mingdong said that everyone was a little taboo, he wanted to practice well, take good care of his wife and son, it is best to die behind his wife in the future. "My wife is so kind and afraid she will be bullied."
"There is no end to worrying," said Lao Jin. Even if his children work and start a family, there are still grandchildren to worry about, always thinking about helping more. "Straighten your eyes, close your eyes, and worry about ending."
"Many people may'register' twice a day." Zhang Lixun said, "Everyone is here to talk and laugh, and exercise by the way."
Nowadays, the housing price in Huzhou has risen from 1,000 yuan per square meter to 10,000 yuan many years ago, and the rent of the "Wangliwang" site has also increased by nearly 10 times. In 2016, at the request of members, Zhang Lixun raised the price of his fitness card for the first time, from an annual fee of 600 yuan to 700 yuan when he opened 20 years ago. After deducting the cost, Zhang Lixun had almost no surplus. He didn't even know if the "Wrist Power King" could last until next year.
Some members told him about Feng Shui, and asked him to change the position of the gym's door. "The God of Wealth is running away from the corridor." Some have suggested painting the interior and improving the hardware and software facilities. Zhang Lixun was unimpressed. "We are not going to be a big boss, nor do we make a lot of money in the gym."
Other members enthusiastically wrote an open letter to the mayor, hoping that the Sports Bureau would reduce some of his rent and keep this "people's gym."
In the end, the suggestion of "Guangkai Shanglu" was recognized by men-the store name was changed to "Wangliwang Fitness Tea House". "Teahouse" seems to be the soul of this gym.
China Youth Daily · China Youth Network reporter Ma Yuping and photo source: China Youth Daily