To actualize potential, Chinese pay many yuan

At PlanBee Combat Training Club in Shanghai, participants aged under 10 to above 50 are punching sandbags and breathing heavily as sweat oozes out of their shiny bodies in all-wet sportswear, despite the late January chilly weather.

The club’s members have increased manifold since its start in August 2016. Gao Lijun, 34, the first Chinese woman to win an international title in boxing, founded the club.

“More than 100 members have joined our community of combat and boxing, among which 60 percent are women and girls. We have girls under the age of 10, and grandmas-to-be. Here at the club, everyone can shrug off the stereotypes of who you are supposed to be, and achieve what you want to be through the punches,” she said.

Gao started practising combat and boxing since her teenage years, and joined a Fortune 500 company after college. When she found that an increasing number of consumers were willing to invest more in sports as both entertainment and prohealth lifestyle, she decided to establish a club.

Gao and her co-founders met one another at boxing clubs, and came up with the idea to establish a club thatmeets the demand of urban residents— a clean, tidy place with professional coaches, friendly environment and inspiring atmosphere that would encourage people to “achieve self-actualization”.