Editing Pulled rickshaw (section)

====China====
In China, from the ancient times and until the 19th century, rich and important people, when traveling overland, were commonly transported in [[Litter (vehicle)#China|sedan chairs]] carried by bearers, rather than in wheeled vehicles. This was at least partly explained by road conditions.<ref>{{citation
|first=Hugh |last=Murray
|publisher=Oliver & Boyd |year=1836
|title=An Historical and Descriptive Account of China: Its Ancient and Modern History ...
|volume=1
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=7UYgG0afqLYC&pg=PA345
|pages=344–345
}}</ref>
<ref>{{citation
|first=Sir George |last=Staunton
|title=An Historical Account of the Embassy to the Emperor of China, Undertaken by Order of the King of Great Britain: Including the Manners & Customs of the Inhabitants & Preceded by an Account of the Causes of the Embassy & Voyage to China. Abridged Principally from the Papers of Earl Macartney...
|publisher= J. Stockdale|year= 1797
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=frc2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA279
|pages=279–280
}}</ref>
It is thought that it was from China (or East Asia in general) that sedan chair (a.k.a. "palanquin") designs were introduced into Western Europe in the 17th century.
<ref>{{citation
|first=A. |last=Reichwein
|publisher=Routledge |year=2013
|isbn=978-1136204623
|title=China and Europe
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=TBtsA_9v1gcC&pg=PA35
|page=35
}}</ref> However, wheeled carts for one or two passengers, pushed (rather than pulled, like a proper rikshaw) by human servant, were attested as well.
<ref>{{citation
|year=1888
|title=Locomotion in the Olden Time
|first=Fred Myron |last=Colby
|journal=Granite Monthly: A New Hampshire Magazine|volume=11
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=D1wSAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA64
|page=64
}}</ref>

[[File:Tsingtau Taxameter 1914.jpg|thumb|Rickshaw and driver in [[Qingdao]], c. 1914]]
In the 19th century, wheelbarrow is the most popular transportation for commoners. In the spring of 1873, the French merchant Menard introduced rickshaw from Japan. The original name is "Jinrikisha", meaning "man-power-vehicle" in Japanese. Most of the rickshaws were owned by foreign investors at the beginning, but in around the 1900s, rickshaws were owned mostly by Chinese companies. The official name for rickshaw is "renliche", meaning "man-power-vehicle" in Chinese, but it is more commonly called "dongyangche", meaning "east-foreign-vehicle", or "huangbaoche" in Shanghai, meaning "yellow carriage for rent".<ref name="Warren p. 15">{{cite book | title=Rickshaw Coolie: A People's History of Singapore, 1880-1940 | publisher=NUS Press | author=James Francis Warren | year=2003 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/rickshawcooliepe0000warr/page/15 15] | isbn=997169266X | url=https://archive.org/details/rickshawcooliepe0000warr/page/15 }}</ref><ref>{{ cite book | title=Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century | url=https://archive.org/details/beyondneonlights0000luha | url-access=registration | author=Hanchao Lu |publisher=University of California Press | year=1999 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/beyondneonlights0000luha/page/68 68] | isbn=0520215648 }}</ref><ref>{{ cite book | title=Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century | url=https://archive.org/details/beyondneonlights0000luha | url-access=registration | author=Hanchao Lu |publisher=University of California Press | year=1999 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/beyondneonlights0000luha/page/68 68–81] | isbn=0520215648 }}</ref>

Rickshaw transportation was an important element in urban development in 20th century China, as a mode of transportation, source of employment and facilitation of migration for workers. According to author David Strand:
<blockquote>Sixty thousand men took as many as a half million fares a day in a city of slightly more than one million.  Sociologist Li Jinghan estimated that one out of six males in the city between the ages of sixteen and fifty was a puller.  Rickshaw men and their dependents made up almost 20 percent of Beijing's population.<ref name=Strand>{{ cite book | title=Rickshaw Beijing: City People and Politics in the 1920 | author=David Strand | page=21 }}</ref></blockquote>

Most manual rickshaws – seen by many [[Maoism|Maoists]] as a symbol of oppression of the working class<ref>{{ cite book | title=Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century | url=https://archive.org/details/beyondneonlights0000luha | url-access=registration | author=Hanchao Lu |publisher=University of California Press | year=1999 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/beyondneonlights0000luha/page/66 66], 73 | isbn=0520215648 }}</ref> – were eliminated in China after the [[People's Republic of China#History|founding of the People's Republic of China]] in 1949.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-nov-04-fg-rickshaw4-story.html|title=India Rickshaws Feeling the Pull of Modern Ways|last=Chu|first=Henry|date=4 November 2005|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=11 July 2018|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035|quote=After all, the Communists in China eliminated this mode of transport soon after assuming power more than half a century ago, criticizing it as primitive and demeaning.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/20/style/chinas-rickshaws-bring-back-bad-memories.html|title=China's Rickshaws Bring Back Bad Memories|last=Cernetig|first=Miro|date=20 October 1999|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=11 July 2018|language=en|quote=But this test-run of rickshaws in China's capital, after a ban of more than 40 years, is widely seen as retrograde. For many Chinese, the rickshaw remains a symbol of feudalism's "coolie culture" and one of the evils of capitalism that was supposed to have been expunged forever from Communist China.}}</ref>

=====Shanghai=====

Shanghai's rickshaw industry began in 1874 with 1,000 rickshaws imported from Japan. By 1914 there were 9,718 vehicles. The pullers were a large group of the city's working poor: 100,000 men pulled rickshaws by the early 1940s, up from 62,000 in the mid-1920s.<ref>{{cite book | title=Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century | url=https://archive.org/details/beyondneonlights0000luha/page/65 | url-access=registration | author=Hanchao Lu | publisher=University of California Press | year=1999 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/beyondneonlights0000luha/page/65 65–66, 68] | isbn=0520215648 }}</ref>

In contrary to coolies in Beijing, those in Shanghai mostly come from rural areas out of the city. With the destitution of their land, they poured into the city with their family. As the number of coolies rose up sharply, however, the number of rickshaw remained at 20,000 in Shanghai. Except private coolies, those for public work had to take turns, and thus their average income diminished to $9 per month. Therefore, many coolies worked in the factory and ran the rickshaw after work. However, many coolies were optimistic about life. They were satisfied about their income and dreamed of purchasing their own rickshaws and sending their kids to schools.<ref>{{ cite book | title=Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century | url=https://archive.org/details/beyondneonlights0000luha | url-access=registration | author=Hanchao Lu |publisher=University of California Press | year=1999 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/beyondneonlights0000luha/page/68 68–81] |isbn=0520215648 }}</ref> Due to this low income, many coolies would not give customers a clear idea of standard price and thus charge higher at any chance they had. In response to this phenomenon, hotels would provide the distance to various streets and the price charged.<ref>Darwent, Charles Ewart. Shanghai; a handbook for travellers and residents to the chief objects
of interest in and around the foreign settlements and native city. Shanghai, Hongkong: Kelly
and Walsh [date of publication not identified].</ref><ref>Hongs & Homes, 1928: A complete directory of Shanghai. Shanghai: Millington, Ltd., 1929.</ref>