BEIJING --- PLA Daily published on Page 8 of its Wednesday edition a letter sent by a soldier to the newspaper calling for improvement of the combat boots. 

In the letter from Corporal Li Shuaishuai serving in an army special operations brigade under the PLA Eastern Theater Command, Li pointed out the shortcomings of the current combat boots and is looking forward improvements. 

Firstly, the combat boots are extremely heavy. The over 1.5-kg boots often drag him down in the 5-km armed cross-country race training. 

Secondly, the boots are not breathable and it is very easy to get wet feet. In summer, after a day's training, the boots usually give off unpleasant smells, and in winter, due to the cold weather, the wet inner layers of the boots are difficult to get dry. 

Thirdly, the soles of the boots are too hard, not easy to deform, but it doesn’t provide any flexibility. Because of the boots' lacking in shock absorption, blisters on the soles of the feet and swelling knees are very common occurrences after long-distance training, the Corporal complained in his letter. 

Li's letter indicates that there is still much room for improvement for the type-07 combat boots the PLA provides for its troop currently.