THE SHANGHAI FREE TAXI: Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China

Frank has captured Chinese insights that most western authors failed do it. The book starts with the usual way but ends with a different note - Chinese slowly finding that US is not so alluring...A wake up call.....

This book was recommended by a friend.

Free rides for conversation. In an attempt to solve the problem of covering a country whose people are not open to talking to strangers much less, foreign journalists, Frank Langfitt figures out a way. While covering Shanghai for NPR, he bought a car and put magnets on it, advertising that he was willing to give people a ride in exchange for conversation. The concept is unique but the execution is nothing short of miraculous. Driving 500 miles deep into rural China, to take a van load of people to their weddings, shows true dedication. Helping a woman find her missing sister in the Golden Triangle, where drugs and women are regularly trafficked, blew my mind. I still think about Crystal and what she went through.The people and their narratives still linger with me. The story telling makes them relatable and likable. Read the book to meet, Beer Horse, the used car salesman who would stop at nothing to sell a car. And Chen the pajama salesman who runs an underground church. His dream is to get his daughters into a more Christian world. Nonfiction that reads like a novel. I found myself chuckling, gasping, and wondering how in the hell he got his passengers to share so many personal details. It’s like Humans of New York and Taxicab confessions but in China and with so much more meaningful analysis. No small task. Frank Langfitt connects with a subset of his passengers and follows them through the years and all over the globe. He takes the reader through the highs and lows of the China dream. They open up to him about their hopes and regrets, successes and failures, and their continued search for honesty, integrity, and spiritualism in an otherwise corrupt, oppressive, and polluted environment. I highly recommend that you get into the taxi and enjoy the journey.

The Shanghai Free Taxi hat aufgezeigt wie Facettenreich China ist. Obwohl ich selber bereits länger in China war, haben mich doch einige Dinge sehr erstaunt. Ich kann dieses Buch jedem empfehlen!

-- Obra periodística por la cual el autor decide ofrecer viajes gratis a cambio de conversación en la cerrada comunidad de la China comunista de Xi Jinping y, gracias a la cual podemos entender la dictadura comunista más allá del relato oficial.-- Algunas se sorprenderán por la diferencia entre la mentalidad oriental frente a la mentalidad occidental, y mejor aún, como la dictadura comunista ha logrado grandes avances para con su pueblo, sin olvidar los casos de picaresca y corrupción y chapuzas (construcción de trenes), pero en definitiva una obra fresca y edificante, escrita a manera de artículo periodístico.-- En definitiva un libro que le proporcionará conocimiento con la pega que no está traducido al español, pero que no obstante aconsejo a los que estén estudiando esa lengua para aprender de manera divertida.

中国の人々の抱える悩み、戸惑い、怒りに、深く切り込んだ内容です。