 Hessler joined the Peace Corps in 1996 and was sent to China for two years to teach English at Fuling Teachers College, a teachers college in Fuling, a small city near the Yangtze River in Chongqing.He later worked in China as freelance writer for numerous publications such as the "Wall Street Journal", the "Boston Globe", the "South China Morning Post", and "National Geographic".Hessler joined "The New Yorker" as a staff writer in 2000 and served as foreign correspondent for the same publication until 2007.