The long, long quest for size 14 sneakers in Beijing

I have a hard time shopping for sneakers in China.

I've gone to dozens of stores－from Converse to Nike to Adidas－in malls up and down the city. No dice.

The problem of course is my feet. I am a size 14. I also need a wide girth for the shoe, the wiggle room for my toes.

The one time I bought a tight fitting sneaker in Hong Kong a few years ago, it gave me problems.

The cramped fit resulted in an ingrown toenail, an often painful condition where the nail basically digs into the soft side tissue of a toe.

I can't even count how many times I jammed my toes into the side of a table or the sidewalk in Hong Kong.

The result is excruciating, like someone just stabbed your foot and the pain shoots up your leg, making you double over in agony.

By the time I got back to the United States, it was so bad that I had to see a foot doctor.

First, there was an injection to dull the pain in his clinic. Then it seemed like he used a meat cleaver to slice the nail away. It took a number of months to get completely cured.

After a year of living in Beijing and walking all over the place when the weather is pleasant, my old reliable Converse sneakers were wearing out.

The hunt for replacements began in earnest and I became gradually frustrated by my inability to find a new pair.

The thing is the biggest size in most sneaker stores in the city is size 11 or 12.

The solution to my foot dilemma came when I decided to accompany my wife to the second hand store in Cathay View Plaza on the road to the airport.

From the front gate of China Daily, one can take bus No 696 for a little over an hour to get to the place.

The store is a place where expats would drop off clothes, shoes and other stuff they no longer need or want and the proceeds go to charity.

It sits a few steps from Didi Supermarket.

The place reminded me of Salvation Army in the US, the popular repository of hand-me-downs we go to a lot in New Jersey.

Rummaging quickly, I found a stylishly black Air Versitile II sneaker with an orange sole and the classic Swoosh design of Nike. It had been assembled in Vietnam and came in at size 14.

Trying it on was a breeze. My Cinderella feet and toes had found their glass slipper.

Then I also spied a golden soccer cleat which fit snugly as well and logged in at size 13.

I grabbed both pairs like relics of saints from the Holy Land, worried that someone else may scoop them up.

The sneakers were the answer to a long quest and I did not really expect to find them on the shelf in a small flea market in Shunyi district.

The cost was also surprisingly, well, cheap.

The shoes cost 60 yuan ($9.3) each, 120 yuan in total. I was doing mental calculations converting the amount into dollars. It came in below $20 for both shoes.

I have seen sneakers in Sanlitun or other malls in Beijing which would retail for 300 to 500 yuan a pair.

One friend was shocked when he saw the shoes and I told him they cost only 60 yuan. He muttered, "How in the world did you find that?"

The only thing I could do was smile. I felt on top of the world.