The most common resource in southern and northern China is plants. Minorities residing in the northeast, south and southwest use grass and wood to make shoes. The grass shoes of the Buyi, Dong, Gelo and Korean minorities are considered traditional handicrafts. The Korean ethnicity has the longest history of wearing grass shoes. As early as in the Han Dynasty (206 B.C-220 A.D.), ancestors of the Korean minority wore "cloth robes and grass shoes." In pre-liberation days, poor people of the Korean minority were bare-footed and those who could afford to wear shoes were seen as "rich people.” Grass shoes of the Korean ethnicity vary, some are shaped like a boat while some cover the whole foot.
Other ethnic groups like the Yi's use longxu grass or rice stems to make shoes that have six ears along the edge. Grass woven laces or cloth straps are threaded through the ears and tied to make the shoe secure. The four-eared grass shoes of the Yao are particularly fine. Yao women weave colorful thread into the grass that makes the shoe durable and pretty.
