http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/sichuan-quake-aftermath An entire Lightstalkers thread via RSS/XML. en-us hello all, am heading to Chengdu (sichuan province) in 2-3 days, anyone already over there or planing to go, and have any info, or want to share costs on driver/translator for few days going around the province in order to do a story about the aftermath, pls give me a yell (e-mail, or cell phone) cheers AG Mon, 26 May 2008 17:34:48 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/sichuan-quake-aftermath I highly recommend my driver, he's a taxi driver from Dujiangyan who I hired for the whole time I was there. He doesn't speak English, of course, so unless your Mandarin Chinese is fluent you will have to have your fixer/translator call him: Chin Fei +86 13608690949 I paid him 500 RMB per day plus all the meals, gas, and other expenses, including hotels when we were on the road. His car is a Volkswagen Jetta standard taxi equiped with both gas and LPG tanks, so when both are full you can go for a long ways without re-fuelling. Fei was great, no problem with getting on the road at 4 am and going until midnight the next day. Probably you won't need to maintain that kind of tempo of course, but I just want you know how reliable and good-natured he is. Of course the immediate impact is over so you may get away with paying him less but don't try to rip him off -- keep in mind that his normal salary (he said) is 3500 RMB a month, and if he's going to work for foreign journalists and go into areas with some risk -- you better pay him well, more than what he usually gets. good luck, alan Mon, 26 May 2008 04:58:18 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/sichuan-quake-aftermath#122171