Chasing Rickshaws - Hardcover

Tony Wheeler

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0864426402 ISBN 13: 9780864426406

Publisher: Lonely Planet, 1998

Synopsis

Looks at rickshaws and the people who operate them in Agra, Calcutta, Hanoi, Macau, Penang, Singapore, Beijing, Dhaka, Hong Kong, Manila, Rangoon, and Yogyakarta

About this title

Review

All across Asia, the rickshaw reigns--as trusty public transportation, tourist attraction, or both. Tony Wheeler and Richard l'Anson traipsed thousands of miles, from China to Indonesia, to ride, photograph, and otherwise investigate this inveterate Asian taxicab. They visited 12 cities in all, traveling through Agra, Calcutta, Hanoi, Macau, Penang, Singapore, Beijing, Dhaka, Hong Kong, Manila, Rangoon, and Yogykarta, following the wheel ruts of the rickshaw--or trishaw, sidecar, pedicab, cyclo, or becak--depending on which city they were in. The result, other than some callused posteriors, is a splendid homage to a transportation tradition. Wheeler explains the history of the cycle-rickshaw, why it remains such a popular and omnipresent form of Asian transport, and how it varies from country to country. The book is studded with glossy photographs of the various riders (the people who pedal, as opposed to the passengers), and rickshaws put to all sorts of uses. Pictures show rickshaws laden with freight (11 metal containers), or children (10 school-bound kids), as well as a close-up of Mohan, an Agra fellow who, at 65, has been riding rickshaws for 40 years and typically makes one to three dollars a day. We see Beijing rickshaw riders, enthused about their jobs, pleased with the freedom of movement, the decent pay, and the healthy exercise--and the rickshaw men of Calcutta, who are pullers rather than riders. Hand-pulled on wooden wheels, Calcutta rickshaws haven't changed much in a century of use, and they own the streets during monsoons, when the more advanced machinery of the auto bogs down. And Dhaka, the world's rickshaw capital, is populated by more than 300,000 rickshaws. Elaborately decorated and often jammed in downtown rickshaw snarls, they dominate local traffic. And so the stories unfold across the continent. Rickshaws provide more than a focus for the book--they allow for an unusual, educational, and intimate portrait of Asia.

From the Publisher

This October, in celebration of a quarter-century of publishing, L\ onely Planet Publications offers its first large-format illustrated giftbook, C\ HASING RICKSHAWS, with text by Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler and 238 full-\ color photographs by Richard I'Anson.

The perfect gift for the world traveler or armchair explorer, CHASING RICKSHAWS is a quirky look at a surprising subject, lavishly photographed and presented in Lonely Planet's characteristic, down-to-earth style.

Edition details

• Publisher: Lonely Planet
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0864426402
• ISBN 13: 9780864426406
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192