Cloth-sole shoes are traditional Chinese shoes worn by officials,women and peasants, spanning many dynasties. Here our reportersrecently visited Neiliansheng, a cloth shoe shop with 150 years ofhistory, located in the 'Dazhalan' hutong of Qianmen, Beijing.

Neiliansheng was established by an official at the time called ZhaoTing. 'Nei' refers to the Grand Imperial Court and 'Liansheng'implies that officials wearing Neiliansheng shoes will find morechances to boost their careers. Neiliansheng shoes were thereforeviewed as luxury items and can, these days, even be considered as aform of artwork.

Cloth-sole shoes in Neiliansheng are handmade and built usingnatural fibers. They are light in weight, incorporating softpadding to provide ample cushioning. The sole is made up ofmultiple layers of cloth, sown together from up to 4000 stitches ofthread. The handiwork is so intricate it can take as many as 4 daysto complete a single pair. Many former Chinese leaders includingChairman Mao and Deng Xiaoping, have been seen wearing these shoesand so they have become very popular with the general public.

There are roughly five main stages needed to make the sole.Firstly, you cut out the shape of the sole from the cloth;secondly, you wrap the sole edges with a layer of cloth forprotection; thirdly, you stitch the shoe soles together usingthread; fourthly, you cover the sole base in bed sheets; and lastlyyou hammer the sole to tighten and strengthen.

In preparation for the Olympic Games, Neiliansheng providescustomizable tailoring services for unavailable sizes. The largestmale size is 50 (30cm in length) and female is 42 (26cm).

Thetailoring process can take up to one month and cost in excess of400RMB.

Source: http://www.qualitydress.com/