1000 Shoes

I spent hours wandering the first floors of malls in the downtown shopping area of Chunxi Lu of Chengdu.  HOURS!!!  I saw a thousand glittering shoes- flats covered in diamonds, bright colors, bows, and flowers; hundreds of pumps all with some type of heel; and sandals with a high top clunky wrap for the ankle.  Looking for an extremely comfortable shoe that could endure 6 hours of teaching a day or hiking through cities during vacation I tried on 5 pairs of plain black shoes and realized 3 things:

1.  Cheap shoes ($30) are of extreme low quality.
2.  Chinese shoes are not only short but also narrow.  Rarely could I find a size 39 or 40 and if I did, my foot flattened by years of playing sports and by my weight did not feel supported on the narrow soles.
3.  Chinese women want to look tall.  It was extremely hard to find a shoe that didn't have some type of heel.

So in conclusion, I hate shoe shopping in China.  I spent HOURS looking and came up with nada!  I am not sure how I am going to deal with the dilemma of needing a good pair of sturdy summer shoes.  After 6 years, I still have my Chaco's, but they aren't very professional.

I did find an amazing Chinese sleeveless traditional, form fitting gray linen shirt with tie-dyed purple flowers and awesome black, baggy pants with embroidered hot pink flowers.  They were expensive, over $20 each, so I didn't buy them.  I am waiting to see if I really really want them.  I will probably buy them.  Stay tuned for pictures.

A terrible day of shopping did end well though with all you can eat sashimi with friends.