Stitch for tradition

When Luo Xiaofeng misses home, he likes to count the number of stitches on the thick shoe-pads made by his mother and Qiang villagers in Sichuan province.

Luo, 33, started his small business on Gulou Dajie five years ago. It is a handicrafts store full of hand-embroidered artwork.

"Women in our village are expert at needlework," he says. "Cloth shoes and shoe soles, worn by family members in all seasons, were usually made by them."

It was once a village custom for a virtuous woman to make some bedding for her new marital home and a pair of beautifully embroidered shoes for her husband.

China's ethnic people have retained this tradition to the present-day and sold them as souvenirs to tourists.

Embroidering shoe-pads by hand is a traditional folk craft. In ancient times, making insoles was an obligatory item in a Qiang woman's dowry when she got married.

In many villages, men had to work all year long, leaving home to strive for a better life. The experience gave them sore feet, so their wives would embroider their insoles with auspicious patterns.

The shoe-pad was made of thickly woven hemp and its surface was embroidered with auspicious pictures, symbols and characters that would express their feelings.

They embroidered flowers, birds and animals on the uppers of women and children's shoes and babies' shoe soles, as well as on all shoe pads, for added beauty and durability.

It took a skilled woman about 10 to 15 days to finish a pair of insoles.

"Visitors, especially young couples, love these handicrafts," says Liu "My parents heard that durable homemade shoe-pads sell well so they make a lot. Even some neighbors in their village are among my suppliers.

"My hometown has kept the tradition going for a long time but the embroidery skill is in danger of dying out. I hope it can go far, at least in Beijing."