Matthew Chan at The Royal Garden's Inagiku restaurant says people in hospitality benefit from taekwondo as it encourages perseverance, humility and courtesy, which are all desirable in the service sector. In his spare time, Matthew is a taekwondo coach and has taught over 30 colleagues at the hotel. Eight of them have international black belts and three were even on the Hong Kong team.

Ken and Maren are two of Matthew's current students. Ken won a medal in a local sparring competition after just over a year in the sport, and Maren – a first-dan black belt also at Inagiku – was recently offered a place training alongside the Hong Kong team in Korea after winning awards in local and Asian tournaments.

"It is in the spirit of taekwondo to train for a lifetime, in all weather," says Matthew, "Perseverance delivers unexpected gains – in a dojang (taekwondo gym) and at work."