When talking about old Beijing cloth shoes, people always think of Neiliansheng. In fact, Buyingzhai has been famous since 1058, only three years later than Neiliansheng. In the feudal society, Buyingzhai made shoes for concubines and queens, while Neiliansheng made shoes for kings and ministers.

At that time, women have no social status, therefore Buyingzhai do not have much repute. The manager Liu Yazhou of Buyingzhai said that Buyingzhai has wide variety of styles and the main consumer group is middle-aged people.

It is hard to research the origins of the name “Buyingzhai”, the literally understanding is“Business is thriving”. The founder of Buyingzhai worked for the court and later founded this shoes shop for concubines. “The experience of serving the court is a prerequisite for opening shoes shop.” Liu Yazhou told the reporter. “At that time, women have to bind their feet. Our foot-binding shoes made are very popular among queens and concubines.

Of course, Buyingzhai not only made shoe for women, it also made shoes for guards in the Royal Palace, and this kind of shoes was called ”Kungfu Shoes”. Because the shoes were made with fine materials, therefore it was well received by martial people of all ages.

As time went by, Buyingzhai shoes were soon developed for regular folks. Some shoes were specialized for workers who have to walk for a long time. With the development of society, hand-made shoes can no longer meet the needs of people from all sides. Thereafter Buyingzhai began to purchase leather shoes from the south in the 1930s.

In the period of China-Africa Cooperation Forum, the shoes of Buyingzhai was extremely popular.

Buyingzhai provided slippers which have embroidered every personal names for the heads of Africa and their wives. Some reporters who had seen the slipper that embroidered the wife of the President of Somalia said the slippers were very elegant and delicate.

“Buyingzhai mainly made shoes for middle-aged people or elders. Sometimes a new style can be sold for hundreds pairs one month.” Liu Yazhou says. When talked about the design of middle-aged casual shoes, Liu said that, when the business manager in the market found shoes that are liked by elders, they will made innovation according to market feedbacks. However when referred to apprentices of making shoes, Liu showed a pitiful expression,” today’s young people do not want to learn this any more. Today’s shoes sometimes are made by hands, sometimes are made by machines.

The shoes of Buyingzhai are extremely comfortable and the ones the are partiularly made of fabric are worth marveling at before trying them on. Currently, Buyingzhai has several branches in Beijing.

The branch in Qianmen Avenue is the first and the oldest one, built in 1858. Buyingzhai was restructured in 2000 and year after year, Buyingzhai gradually revitalized. A year later, the sales of shoes surpassed more than 1600 million. When talked about selling shoes in shopping malls, Liu Yazhou said frankly that the rent is so expensive and they are thinking about opening a shop in the SOHO New Town.

Buyingzhai shoes are also sold in the second and third tier cities; they are sold together with other brands of old Beijing shoes after agents purchased them. Nowadays, the sale channels of Buyingzhai are more and more modernistic and you can buy Buyingzhai shoes from Tesco or a number of other agencies. Liu Yazhou said the future trend is to open to on-line shops as well .