Ed Gargan, Hong Kong bureau chief, The New York Times Age: 45.
Career path: I was born in Boston and grew up in the United States, France, Italy and Europe. I went to a Catholic High School in Massachusetts and hated it so much I dropped out. Later, I did a Bachelor of Arts and then a Masters degree in Chinese History and Languages at the University of Wisconsin. After that I did a PhD in Medieval Chinese History at the University of California, Berkeley. It occurred to me that there weren't too many jobs for historians specialising in Medieval Chinese history, so I sent a letter to The New York Times in which I admitted to not knowing 'a bean' about journalism. I was hired. At The New York Times I won the prestigious Council of Foreign Relation's Edward R. Murrow Fellowship and during my fellowship wrote a book on China. I have been a correspondent since then and have lived and worked in China, New Delhi, Kabul and even Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. I will be in Hong Kong for about three years covering the handover and the rest of Southeast Asia.
Ed's day: The beauty of this job is that there is no regular day. If I'm not travelling, I get up before 7 am, listen to Southeast Asia Today on the BBC World Service to see what's tickling them, then I check my e-mail. I then do the eight-kilometre Bowen Road run, which is just down the road from me. When I come back, I have orange juice and cereal on the balcony and then settle down with newspapers from around the region and the espresso I make in an industrial-sized machine. Then I start talking to people on my mobile and getting organised.
I try to never do interviews before 10 am because of all the reading I have to do. I'm out interviewing most of the morning, and at least three times a week I have a business lunch. In the afternoons, I start writing and filing my stuff. There isn't a lot of daily breaking news, but if there is I write late at night, or however long it takes.
I'm out of Hong Kong at least two weeks a month - I travel all over the region. If a big story breaks in the area, I drop everything and go.
I've chosen not to have live-in help and so I eat out every night, sometimes with friends and sometimes with contacts. What freaks me out is how early restaurants close in Hong Kong. If I had my way I would never go out to eat before 9 pm, but here you can't do that! I love Asian food, but I wish Hong Kong had some decent French restaurants.
Salary: Commensurate with the rent paid by the company for a 3,000-square-foot Mid-Levels apartment.