AT least one foreigner will be leaving the city with something good to say about local taxi drivers.

Gary Wilson, a British crew member for Lufthansa Airlines, dropped his phone in the back seat of a cab yesterday afternoon, but the honest taxi driver went out of his way to track down Wilson, who will leave the city today.

"I couldn't thank him more for the return of my cell phone - it is almost half of my life," Wilson told Shanghai Daily yesterday.

When Huang Zhichao, a driver with Dazhong Taxi Co, noticed the phone in his back seat shortly after dropping Wilson off along Chongqing Road around 3:30pm yesterday, he searched the area and nearby Xujiahui for the foreigner, but couldn't find him.

"I also resorted to the police for help, but they couldn't help me either," Huang said, noting the phone menu wasn't in Chinese.

He then called several TV stations and newspapers for help, but they told him the best way to reach a foreigner was to call Shanghai Daily.

Newspaper employees were able to find the phone numbers for Wilson's father in Britain and a friend in India on the phone, and gave them a call.

"I received an e-mail from my father around 4:30pm. It was a huge relief to me," Wilson said yesterday as he stopped by the paper's newsroom to receive the phone from Huang.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2007/200706/20070615/article_319685.htm