It's the chair that promises to turn your acres of ugly fat into kilos of prime muscle and give you a million-dollar look. All it takes, the television advertisement will tell you, is a few minutes a day in the AB Lounge, and you too will have the kind of abdomen and sexy muscle lines that will leave others breathless.

It is unclear what effect this body-building machine has had on the world's collective muscle tone, but 3 million of them have been sold in the past 10 years or so, and, at several hundred dollars apiece, it is easy to understand why thousands of people in the city of Xiamen, East China, are cheering.

The maker is Evere Sports Goods Co of Xiamen, which also makes other kinds of fitness equipment, working with many top fitness brands in Europe, the United States and Japan.