Vietnam-based California Fitness and Yoga, part of Australasian health and fitness operator Fitness and Lifestyle Group (FLG), is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year by giving away seven Iconic Gold membership cards.

Made from 24-carat gold, the limited edition cards give a one-year gold membership and are worth VND170m (c US$7,000).

The memberships can't be bought – only won – with the FLG brand awarding four to the winners of a series of special Gold Hunt Challenges that have been taking place across the country since October. The remaining three are being given away in a prize draw into which both new and existing members are automatically entered.

California Fitness and Yoga opened its first club in Ho Chi Minh City’s Chinatown district in August 2007, with a number of members at the time paying in real gold bars for a lifetime membership.

These members have been among the special guests at a series of celebratory gala events this month. “We’re seeing the milestone of our 15th birthday as the perfect moment to go even further in leading a wellness revolution in Vietnam,” said Dane Fort, co-founder of California Fitness and Yoga and CEO of FLG Vietnam.

“We want to help more people find an activity they love to keep fit and well," he told HCM "So far we’ve organised a yoga competition, our first-ever kickboxing challenge and a Guinness World Record for the largest ever album of ‘before and after’ body transformations to which 21,000 people contributed.

“When I arrived in Vietnam, the only choices for fitness were hotel gyms, basic government-owned facilities or private gyms in people’s front rooms. The market is now far more diverse, but California Fitness and Yoga was – and still is – the trailblazer, setting the standards, providing the benchmark and ultimately laying the foundations of the fitness sector as it exists in Vietnam today,” he said.

California Fitness and Yoga operates 37 full-service clubs that host almost 11 million workouts a year.

With an average footprint of 3,500sq m, clubs have between two and four yoga studios, two and three group exercise studios, a gym floor and a functional space.

Around two-thirds of clubs also have a Centuryon-branded VIP area where facilities include a private gym, pool and hydrotherapy suite. Some have on-site Hypoxi studios

There are also three standalone California Centuryon clubs.