Matin Zamani displays his collection of handmade Persian rugs at Beijing's Four Seasons hotel. [Photo by Feng Yongbin/China Daily]

Zamani says the appeal of authentic rugs sometimes brings wealthy Iranians to Beijing who expect to find an easy market among the Chinese elite.

"Some have come in, opened a fancy gallery and hung up big antiques costing a million yuan each. Then they go off and do other businesses, just expecting the money to roll in."

Several have shut shop in the past two years and blamed China's slowing economy, he says, when the problem was that they never really worked the market.

It takes networking, he says, and getting a sense of Chinese tastes. Some Chinese, even those with more money than common sense, can't comprehend spending as much on a rug as a car and then walking on it, "which for Iranians is just a way of life".

Chatty but low-key, Zamani keeps himself and his Zamani Collection of rugs in front of potential customers with shows at his own gallery space and a series of pop-up events, including a recent one at Beijing's Four Seasons hotel that also showcased fashion designer Kathrin von Rechenberg, another local proponent of natural dyes.

Zamani's other passion is physical fitness. He's a bodybuilder and a private conditioning coach, whose wealthy clients from both his professional worlds sometimes overlap.

"I wasn't into that as a teenager," Zamani says. "I was an art nerd. I thought weightlifting was what the dumb kids did. But my parents worried that I was always hunched over a canvas, painting. So they pushed me to do something active."

Zamani became intrigued by the healthy lifestyle of his gym friends, and that led to his second career. He's also managed to combine his gallery with another kind of fitness program: yoga.

"The rugs on the floors and walls give the space such a peaceful, calm feeling," he says. "I don't do yoga myself, but the concept seemed like a perfect match."

His gallery becomes an exercise studio at least once a week.

Is assuming the lotus position on a 40,000 yuan rectangle of Shirazi silk a superior way to enlightenment?

"I can't advertise that," Zamani says with a big grin. "But it can't hurt."

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