People say that this is because there is too little space inside the apartments themselves, but apartments are even smaller in Japan and they don't seem to have mounds of shoes outside their doors. I think that this is the "practical" mentality of the Chinese at work, or the attitudes of an agricultural society--use whatever is available--and people just don't think about how to arrange their environment.
有人提到是公寓的空間太小使然，但日本的公寓更小，也沒有在門廳放一堆鞋子的，我覺得這中間是中國人的「實用」觀念在作祟，還是農業社會的觀念，能用則用，並未花心思去安排環境。