There is a handmade shoes workshop named Xu Qing in the Shanghai Road. Unfortunatety, I didn't have the opportunity to meet with the shop boss Xuqing,...
There is a handmade shoes workshop named Xu Qing in the Shanghai Road. Unfortunatety,
I didn't have the opportunity to meet with the shop boss Xuqing, but I'm very glad to have a talk with Xu Chuanxin, the shop shoemaker. Master Xu, who is originally like to laugh, saw my shoes and began to laugh, "Your shoes are produced on the assembly lines, not by hand". He showed me his feet: plain black leather shoes with simple style, but extraordinary. He made this pair of shoes by himself, and what's more he and his boss never buy shoes, they just make by themselves. And people who come to this shoe workshop, all similar to them, they all have a good taste on shoes.
Xu Qing's studio is in Shanghai Road, near the Wutai Mountain, North Station. By passing the big slope, you can find their shop, shoemaker Xu was lying on the railing in front of their shop, staring at the people's shoes.
The store was not big but it had very good indoor pattern, which make it look spacious, and leather shoes and leather material become the whole store. A tea table was set in the middle of the shop and an atlas and the leather sample were on it. From Master Xu, I knew that the atlas recorded each pair of shoes that they had made.
The store has opened for many years, and Xu Chuanxin also came to work here for three or four years. Xu Chuanxin loved shoes, he said his boss Xu Qing love shoes even more than him. Heard from Master Xu, I got that he had kept his love for shoes since a little child, every time he saw a new shoe style he might think for a while and then tried to imitate a pair.
Xu Qing had learned her shoemaking craft under the tutelage of many people, specialized training course in Shanghai and a well-known shoe master in Singapore, etc. Xu Qing learned her craft similar with all the people who had once be an apprentice, at the very beinning she worked as an assistant for her master, delivered water, tea, and tools, and just during these processes, she learned from her master, and as while as her master found her sincerity in shoemaking, he taught her all the things he knew without any reservation. Xu Chuanxin and XU Qing's friendship had began as early as the 20-year-old, long before he worked for her. Xu Chuanxin said, "At that time, we make our shoes together and we talk about the shoes style together", and he still remembered that, "Each process must personally check by Xu Qing.
The shoes in this shop was not cheap, each of he pair was almost 1,000 RMB. But Xu Chuanxin said the shoes were worth for its price. Exquisite shoes from start to finish took about three to four weeks.
Compare with the assembly line production shoes, the biggest feature of handmade shoes is the comfort and feet fit. The guests of this shoe shop told master Xu that after they entered into this handmade shoe shop, they can not walk into other shoe shops.
