Hou Jun shows off his muscles at his gym in Beijing. Hou became famous for being a private fitness instructor for celebrities. Provided to China Daily

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He arrived in Beijing three years ago, after finishing college in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, with very little money but enough ambition.

He wanted to earn quickly to help his parents repay about 3 million yuan ($490,000) in debt.

"It was Christmas Eve, and Beijing welcomed me with flakes of snow," Hou recalls. He slept beneath an overpass near a railway station like the homeless do as he couldn't afford a hotel.

Today, he makes thousands of yuan daily and has a home gym in a 300-square-meter apartment in an upscale community in downtown Beijing, for which he pays 43,000 yuan a month.

He has paid off one-third of his parents' debt.

"I never thought I would become a celebrity fitness coach. I didn't know anything about this profession when I first came to Beijing," Hou says. "But one circumstance led to another."

Hou was born in a village in Huai'an, Jiangsu province, where people like to practice martial arts. Huai'an is also the hometown of former premier Zhou Enlai.

Hou practiced Chinese shadow boxing through his childhood, and never stopped the daily training until he reached high school and then college to study logistics management.

In 2009, after their business collapsed, Hou's parents sent him to join the army. Although Hou was in the army for about a year, the training made him physically and psychologically stronger. Then he came to Beijing to earn the money he needed for his parents.