[Video provided to ezhejiang.gov.cn]
"I put Xie's pegged boots on my feet and scale the mountain ladder to the blue cloud." These words were written by renowned poet Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). He was expressing his adoration for Xie Lingyun, a government official, traveler, and landscape poet of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420) and serves as a record of Xie's invention – a pair of pegged boots.
Though Xie was demoted to prefecture chief of Yongjia, the ancient name of Wenzhou in East China's Zhejiang province, the beautiful mountains and rivers there reenergized the official and inspired him to invent the climbing boot, the most famous pair of shoes in Chinese history, and create many poems and essays.
Lucheng district in downtown Wenzhou, where the official wrote his most famous poem when ascending Chishang Tower, is following this shoe-making tradition and working to become the shoe capital of the world.
