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Chinese man spends $120,000 on 300-year gym membership, left stunned as management disappears
In China, a man lost $120,000 after buying 300 years of gym memberships, as the facility’s management vanished without returning his money.
A man in eastern China has taken legal action against a gym after spending more than 870,000 yuan (US$120,000) on memberships and lessons spanning 300 years, only to find the management had disappeared with his money.
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Massive investment turns into shock
According to a report by the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the man, identified as Jin, sought the help of a local television station to expose the Ranyan Gym in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Jin presented 26 contracts he had signed with the gym for memberships and private coaching sessions.
“From May 10 to July 9, I bought about 1,200 lessons and membership cards with an accumulative validity period of 300 years, at a total cost of 871,273 yuan,” Jin told the station, as cited by SCMP.
Jin, a regular customer at the gym for three years, said he was first approached on May 9 by a sales worker who claimed there was a special promotion for existing members.
The tempting offer
The offer involved purchasing a one-year membership card for 8,888 yuan, which the gym would then sell to new customers for 16,666 yuan. According to the sales worker, ten per cent of the profit would go to the gym while the rest would be returned to the buyer.
“At first, I was sceptical, but the sales worker guaranteed it would work out to my benefit,” Jin said. “He said if they did not sell it within two months, they would return all the money to me.”
Lured by the promise of quick returns, Jin bought two membership cards for more than 17,000 yuan. Over the following weeks, he was convinced to purchase more cards and private lessons, at one point spending over 300,000 yuan in a single transaction.
Vanishing promises
As reported by SCMP, on July 15, when Jin expected some of his principal investment back, no money arrived. A sales worker told him the finance department was still reviewing the transaction. By the end of the month, Jin discovered that the management and sales team had vanished.
Zhejiang TV later found the gym still operating in Hangzhou’s Binjiang District, but only with receptionists and administrative staff.
Jin admitted that none of the contracts mentioned the promised returns and that memberships could not be transferred. “I admit that I have been brainwashed by them. I believed I was only one small step away from getting back all my money,” he said.
Despite the loss, Jin said he considered the purchase a “health investment” and had never truly planned to use the memberships for three centuries.
