In Chasing Rickshaws, these two inveterate travelers team up to explore the fascinating world of rickshaws-from the cyclos of Vietnam to the teak becaks of Java-in a dozen cities throughout Asia.

The mystique of the rickshaw has captured the western imagination since the turn of the century, bringing to mind exotic images of passengers being pulled through crowded markets of the Orient. Recognizing that rickshaws may one day be as rare as horse-drawn wagons in New York City, the authors journey from Calcutta to Beijing, from Hanoi to Manila to document this unique and endangered culture before it disappears completely.

Rickshaws and their riders have been studied by engineers, evaluated by transportation economists and analyzed by sociologists. They are featured in numerous movies, and as the authors discover, are still an enormously popular form of transport ideally suited to the scale and traffic patterns of many Asian cities. "Our favorite passengers were, without doubt, the schoolchildren who, in city after city, pile into rickshaws to ride to and from school each day," writes Wheeler.

Chasing Rickshaws tells the stories of the people behind the scenes-including rickshaw pullers, riders, owners, passengers, repairers, manufacturers, and even rickshaw artists.