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I am Rob Schmitz. I'm from Elk River, Minnesota, and I am the Shanghai Corespondent for . I鈥檓 also the author of . My Shanghai story is a circuitous one鈥攊n college I was a Spanish Literature Major and I wanted to use that to go to the . I wanted them to send me to South America and I said so much on my application. But they completely ignored that and sent me to China, a place I had never given a thought to prior to that.

So in 1996, right after graduating college, I was sent to my site in the city of Zigong in southern Sichuan; myself and a married couple, we were the first foreigners to live there since before 1949, so it was sort of a bizarre crazy experience those two years. I liked it a lot though and I really enjoyed China, I came back in 2000 and lived in Chengdu and started writing as a freelancer, then went back to the U.S. for grad school at to get a Journalism Masters.



Then I started doing public radio and I kept going back to China about every other year to do fellowships, different journalistic projects, before I landed a job with which sent me back to China in 2010. Two years ago I switched to National Public Radio.

I think that Shanghai鈥檚 a really exciting, vibrant city with an amazing mix of people from all over China. I think that鈥檚 even more interesting than the foreigners, that this city has people from all over the country in one place. It鈥檚 a young city and there鈥檚 a sort of feeling here that there are opportunities all over the place. Also it鈥檚 probably one of the best planned cities not only in China but in the world. It鈥檚 amazing that this is a city of over 24 million people and you don鈥檛 have incredible traffic鈥擨 mean you do鈥攂ut it could be so much worse.



Downsides of the city, I am a father of two young sons and there are no places for them to play. I think that鈥檚 what prevents the city from becoming a great world city鈥攊n their kind of dorky engineering mode of planning they forgot to think about children. The other drawback is it鈥檚 a city solely focused on money, at the expense of other things, and I think that鈥檚 a problem.

I don鈥檛 go out to bars that much鈥�my go to local bar is , 鈥榗ause I live close by. I always order the Stinky Pig鈥攂ut you have to get there on a night that鈥檚 not busy so they can focus on making the drink. I have kids who love baseball so is one of my favorites, I love that place. What else...

The at the is one of the coolest bars I鈥檝e ever seen. And there鈥檚 a bar that鈥檚 the tiniest little bar in Shanghai and it鈥檚 sort of hidden, I profiled it once for a . It鈥檚 a bar called Moju, owned by Moe (pronounced 鈥淢o-ee鈥�), she鈥檚 Japanese Mongolian, and you go in there and she鈥檒l just make stuff for you, you don鈥檛 ask, she just tells you what you鈥檙e gonna get and it鈥檚 awesome. If you want a good mixed drink I can鈥檛 think of anything better than her place鈥攁nd she鈥檚 super cool. [Ed's Note: you need her WeChat to reserve a seat. Happy hunting.]



I鈥檓 not a foodie type of guy, but I am a Sichuan food kinda guy, I was spoiled when I was in the Peace Corps. Shanghai has really crappy Sichuan restaurants though, a lot of them are really terrible. The best one in my mind, there鈥檚 a Zigong food restaurant on Shaanxi Lu (near Jinxian Lu), called . They have this dish called damayu, 鈥渢he big numb fish,鈥� it's fish in this huajiao broth with like 1,000 kernels of huajiao all over the place. You can鈥檛 even feel your mouth at the end of that, it鈥檚 great.

No way I鈥檒l live here forever. I guess I鈥檓 not one of those people that鈥檚 so in love with Shanghai or China. I like this place, but I鈥檓 also periodically incredibly annoyed living here and I think as time goes by and my children get older I鈥檓 even more annoyed by the way things are, that I think it鈥檚 going to push me out. And as weird as it sounds right now, I do miss life in the United States quite a bit.



I don鈥檛 like saying I鈥檓 proud of things... but I am happy about the and I鈥檓 happy with the reception the book has had. Honestly, the thing I鈥檓 most happy about is I feel very fortunate to be reporting on such an amazing country and to have this job because it allows me to travel around one of the most interesting countries on the planet.


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To read/listen to Rob's work, check out his , or his work on , or both. Go nuts.