Shanghai's Shoeshine Crips and Bloods

I mentioned before about the shoeshine terrorists that attack the shoes of tourists (or foreigners) in downtown Shanghai. Last weekend when I was on the Bund again I wore my tennis shoes as a precaution - thinking that would remove me as a target. But the very first shoeshine terrorist I ran into actually tried to squirt paste on my tennis shoes! He was within inches of my new canvas shoes before I could shove him away. We got into an argument that evolved into a discussion. He explained that he was from Anhui Province and had been in Shanghai several years as a shoeshine man. "Anhui is rotten", he said. "There are no jobs and the government is so corrupt." He said that the police in Shanghai only bother him when they need a bribe, otherwise "they leave me alone." "These two blocks near Fuzhou street belong to shoeshine people from Anhui. If you go west two blocks the Zhejiang (province) shoeshine people take over." Apparently, the city is broken up into Crips and Bloods-type rival shoeshine gangs.