Topping the list of things I will miss when we eventually leave China will be the ease that certain rather odd things are able to be done.
While it is next to impossible to find deodorant, getting your hair cut requires a Xanax, and finding a size small blue t-shirt or a pair of size 28 girls shoes requires blocking out an entire day for the search, certain things are effortless. Like having a hole in your jeans mended, or a table cloth sewn, or a pair of shoes repaired.
These ladies all do hand stitching and are in their places every single day. They each have their own spot and, as you can see by the photos, they are busy.
This group are all located in what would be about a long NYC block. 
It was lunchtime when these photos were taken, so it makes sense that people had dropped off their mending during lunch hour and would likely pick it up on the way home from work. Nice enough work on a nice day, but I assure you these four ladies are all working this strip no matter what the weather; hot, cold, raining, snowing, they stitch and mend.
I also have a favorite street tailor who has her sewing machine set out on what is basically a street corner for more complicated work. The charges are minimal, the work is done on the spot and if you don't like the work they have done, they will do it over. This is a particularly crappy photo as these nice ladies always wave and say hello when they see me, so I was hiding in another shop trying to take their photo. I know, nice. polite, sneaky behavior from the lao wai. Some days it's hard being a foreigner.
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