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The clubs in Hong Kong are pretty good. I usually go to the one in Causeway Bay. I talked to a personal trainer about 3 months ago. When I find out the price for a "package" is 450-500 HKD per session, I just said no. And the trainer didn't bother me again.

My suggestion is to get a all-club membership in U.S. when they run promotions if you can. It's usually a lot cheaper. I got mine for $600 USD, 3 year-all club with no sign up fees.

They are opening their first China club in Beijing this summer. I think they'll expand fast in China with Yao Ming being the spokesman.

A couple of clubs in Taipei have Taiwanese style sauna and bath facilities. I found that very relaxing after a workout.

My serviced apartment offered a great rate at California Fitness. I went down, worked out and then met with my personal trainer. More like personal high-pressure sales rep. They kept trying to get me to sign up for training sessions which for three months amounted to well over $1,500 USD. I finally agreed to take on three sessions for about $150 USD and then when they brought me the contract all training sessions had to be completed in three weeks or I forfeited them. It's a nice gym and the people are nice, but unless you want to sit for hours talking with your "trainer" about how much money you can spend, just get the membership and tell them to leave you alone.

They will try to squeese every penny out of you. The customer service is shitty. Bacially they are out there to screw you. I regret wasting my money on them.

I joined a 12-month plan last fall and got a super deal of HK$350 monthly for platinum membership, meaning i could go anytime to any of their 5 centres. The particular salesperson I met was not as pushy as reputed, my 2cents worth is for you to know what your budget is for joining a gym, visit a few other gyms to see their facilities and find out what others charge. California is in my opinion a 4-star facility and if you're lucky (and persistent), you can get it at a 3-star rate like I did. To expect to pay anything less would be unrealistic as the price you pay won't help to sustain the facility for the long-term. I live and work in HK island and though the KLN centres are of less use to me, it's good to know that whenever I need to, i could use any of them. Each of the centres has a different atmosphere and visitor profile - i personally like the causeway bay one best, both because of convenience and ambience. Mostly younger chaps and gals, many w overseas education or are BBC / ABC / CBC etc. If you go after 8:30pm on a weekday nite, it's usually little queueing time.

I've been a member since 1997. It does get very very crowded during peak hours (Lunch time and 5:30onwards). So I go early in the morning, about 7:30ish. Much much better.

The equipment is very good, the shower facilities are not bad. If you get a platinum membership you can use their gyms anywhere in the world, so if you travel a lot that might help. From what I've seen the staff are friendly and non-interfering.

I havent been to any of the other gyms (cept to try out one on invitation in Olympic centre in North Point - where the customer service was absolutely appalling. ugh), so I cannot really rate it against those.

hope this helps.

That's interesting to read that the sales people are pushy because I sent an email to someone there asking about prices a couple of weeks ago and no-one bothered to get back to me!

Signing up at California Gym is extremely stressful. The sales guys are very aggressive and if you give them your number they'll nag you 5x a day. The worst part is the haggling you have to go thru in securing a good deal, cos no 2 people are paying the same rate. So basically don't budge until they offer you that $0 joining fee they so love to advertise. The equipment in the gym is great and so are the classes. However, it does get crowded during peak hours and you may have to wait for a machine or queue for a class.