The Shanghai Free Taxi : Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China - Frank Langfitt

The Shanghai Free Taxi

Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China

By: Frank Langfitt

Paperback | 13 January 2019 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback


$38.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $9.69 with

 or 

Aims to ship in 15 to 25 business days

When will this arrive by?
Enter delivery postcode to estimate

Real lives in modern Shanghai - a portrait of a dynamic city struggling against a repressive regime.

As any traveller knows, the best and most honest conversations take place during car rides. So when journalist Frank Langfitt wanted to learn more about the real China, he started driving a cab - and discovered a country amid seismic political and economic change.

The Chinese economic boom, with its impact on the environment, global trade, and the tech industry, has been one of the most important stories of the twenty-first century. Yet few realise that the boom is largely over, and that the new reality in China is unequal growth, political anxiety and a newly empowered strongman president.

In order to understand this new world, Frank Langfitt offered the citizens of Shanghai a simple deal: a conversation in exchange for a free taxi ride. Rides turned into follow-up interviews, shared meals and even a wedding invitation. In this adventurous book, we get to know an array of quirky yet representative characters like Beer Horse, the pushy dealer who sells Langfitt his used car; Rocky, a stylishly dressed migrant worker who loves John Denver music; and Xiao Chen, who moved his family to Hawaii to escape China's oppressive education system but was unable to get out of the country himself.

Unfolding over the course of several years, The Shanghai Free Taxi is a sensitive and eye-opening book about a rapidly changing country.

About the Author

Frank Langfitt spent a decade as a reporter in China, first with the Baltimore Sun in Beijing and later as NPR's Shanghai correspondent from 2011 to 2016. Langfitt graduated from Princeton and was Nieman fellow at Harvard. He now serves as NPR's correspondent in London and lives in Surrey with his wife, Julie, a veterinarian, and their two children. Before becoming a journalist, Langfitt drove a taxi in Philadelphia.
Industry Reviews
Frank Langfitt's stint as a taxi driver collecting tales of modern China has created a rollicking, delightful read. Enchanting

The Shanghai Free Taxi presents a unique, kaleidoscopic view of Chinese society. Characters in this book open up, talking freely and truthfully in a way unimaginable elsewhere under the oppressive regime. It is a must

read
for anyone trying to gain rare and insightful glimpses into that complicated country

As Washington risks a new cold war with Beijing, Langfitt excels at humanising a country increasingly presented in purely oppositional terms . . . Langfitt achieves a breadth rarely found in journalistic accounts of the country - Financial Times

More in Travel Writing

Spanish Gardens - Derry Moore

RRP $85.00

$84.50

Ciao Bella! : Six Take Italy - Kate Langbroek

RRP $24.99

$23.75

A Thousand Feasts : Small Moments of Joy ... A Memoir of Sorts - Nigel Slater
The Hebridean Baker : The Scottish Cookbook - Coinneach MacLeod

RRP $55.00

$43.90

20%
OFF
Swimming Sydney : A tale of 52 swims - Chris Baker

RRP $32.99

$31.35

The Silk Roads : A New History of the World - Peter Frankopan
Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
The Message - Ta-Nehisi Coates

Paperback

RRP $36.99

$33.25

10%
OFF
A Training School for Elephants - Sophy Roberts
Be Our Voice - Daniel Wlazlak

Paperback

$23.30

Mermaids Singing and Peel Me a Lotus - Charmian Clift

RRP $29.99

$27.90

Tracks - Robyn Davidson

Paperback

RRP $22.99

$21.90

Kinfolk Travel : Slower Ways to See the World - John Burns

RRP $70.00

$47.25

32%
OFF
Everything is Water : A river-walking journey - Simon Cleary