One of the first things I do when moving to a new place is try to find a gym to join. So did I here in Guiyang. As soon as I landed, I asked my principal if he's a member somewhere or if he knows a gym. He said that he's wasn't a member yet, but he cooperates with the owner of a gym where teachers and staff of our school get special discounts. He'd organise a trip to that gym sometime soon he said. Ten days after my arrival, he organised said trip and some interested colleagues joined us.
It is a massive brand new gym, owned by a US American. He personally took us around and showed us the large yoga rooms, the weight lifting room, the changing rooms, the cafeteria soon to open, the mini golf course on the terrace, etc, etc. Everything was stylish and very impressive. The yearly fee is quite impressive too, despite the special offer for us. But he made us an offer to teach in the English corner and go down in price. The English corner is free English lessons to Chinese members of the gym. If you choose to teach two hours a week, the membership would be totally free. One hour a fortnight and you pay 25% less, etc.
The problem with that gym is that it is a bit far off and you need a car, a scooter or a bicycle for the eight miles one way. There's no direct bus, and since the bus system is all in Chinese, and it's all Greek to us, we avoid them like the plague. I didn't really like the atmosphere in this gym. It was quite sterile, it felt like a hospital. That's why I didn't want to become a member.
I asked and looked around to find something closer, but as Jinyang is a relatively newly built area, many things are missing and nobody knew a gym nearby. One day however, there were some people outside our mall, handing out flyers of a gym. I took one, but it was all in Chinese. No prices were to be seen. I figured out that they must have a special offer this month, because there were some dates on it and it read ‘Goodbye Winter’ in a corner. I took my iPad, fired up a translation software, scanned the two sides of the flyer and retrieved my info. Well, it didn't mention anything specific about the special offer, and indeed there were no prices. As I wanted to be sure, I took the flyer to school and gave it to my students to translate. It was their project for the day. I looked up the address on Google maps, and it said six miles away from home. I had a closer look and discovered that Google was fooling me. First, where it said that the street was, I knew that it wasn't. Second, who advertises their business far away from it? It had to be closer. And indeed it is.
Thanks to my wonderful French colleague who got lost one day and got to meet a Chinese woman who spoke English and was a member of said gym and brought her there, we discovered that it is very close to our house. Both of us became members.
The 'how' is interesting though. My colleague was driven there by the Chinese and because the Chinese woman didn't have the time to show her around, she left her there with the ladies from the reception. As none of them speaks English, they called a young lady who does and translated everything over the phone. The young lady is a friend of the manager and negotiated a good deal for my colleague who signed up on the spot. The very next day, my colleague got lost on the way to the gym and a policeman approached her to ask if she needed help. My colleague showed him a photo of the building of the gym and he offered her a ride in his police car. Quite a flashy way to get there! Inside the building, all members of staff and various customers wanted to be photographed with her. So she almost missed her yoga class.
When my colleague showed me the photo, I thought the building looked familiar. I then took out the flyer and discovered that it was the one I've been looking for, for weeks. One night we went together and she showed me the way. She went to her yoga class and the ladies from the reception asked me to sit down and offered me a cup of hot water. A few minutes later, I was already nervous because I had the impression that they might not have understood that I wanted to become a member and might have thought that I'd wait for my colleague, I stood up, but was immediately asked to sit down and wait. One of the ladies was going around with her mobile phone trying to reach someone. A few minutes later, she passed me over the phone and a female English speaking voice was to be heard. The lady from the reception organised a few people to show me around and the phone was passed over from person to person and back and forth to me. A few members of the gym followed us, among them one who spoke little English. I didn't join that day because I didn't have any money or card with me. The ladies from the reception however had the form on the counter and pointed with a ballpoint at it. I said to the lady on the phone that I would come back in two days to join.
'Why don't you join today' she asked in a very direct and harsh way.
‘Because I don’t have any money with me’ I replied.
‘You can pay by card!’ she said, what came across in a harsh military tone.
‘I don’t have a card with me either!’ I said.
‘OK! When will you come back again?’
Jeez! I thought.
Well, two days later I am back with my card. I enter the building and am immediately greeted in English by a young lady. It turns out that she was the lady I spoke to on the phone. She’s all nice and friendly this time, not at all harsh and military. She comes with me to the reception, talks a while with the ladies there, and asks me to enter my name and telephone number on the form and sign it. That’s it! Very uncomplicated for a complicated country. I speak to the lady while my details are put onto the system and discover a little camera on the counter. I ask if they need a photo of me for their system, but they reply that they have already taken one. When did this happen? Incredible those Chinese!
All this time at reception, people gather around and stare. When I get my membership card and walk towards the changing room, I am followed by a small crowd. The small crowd stands around me in the changing room and one who speaks little English engages me in a conversation. I feel like a celebrity surrounded by fans, but they don’t ask for autographs. Once I’m in my sports gear, I make my way out of the changing room through the ground floor, which in China is the first floor, up the flight to the (western) first (Chinese second) floor to the weight lifting room. The crowd is still behind me. Once on the first floor, heads turn, people smile and the crowd spreads over the room while I walk towards the bicycle.
There’s only one bicycle on the entire floor. On its right is a stepper, on its left are several treadmills. Stepper and the two treadmills next to the bicycle are free when I sit on the bike, but within two minutes, three people come and occupy them. Half an hour later when I go to the weights and place myself on a machine, one of the coaches approaches me and wants to show me how it works. I’m grateful for that, because I have no clue how it works. A minute or so later, while the coach is watching me, a young man who speaks English appears and engages me in a conversation. A crowd forms a half circle and some of them ask the English speaking young man something. Then he turns around and asks me if I mind to be photographed with them. Jeez! I think! That’s the price one has to pay for joining a gym not frequented by Laowai. I agree to a photoshoot and continue then with my workout. I hope this won’t happen every day I come here. I somehow can understand it and it fills me with pleasure. Then I think to myself, those people here treat us with respect, treat us like stars and how do we treat them back home? I wish we were like them.
Flyers (advertising with Laowai)
Interesting menber activities ...
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