He was offered a job by Walter Henry Medhurst at the London Missionary Society Press in Shanghai assisting in his translation of the New Testament into Chinese.

In this period, he also translated many English books into Chinese in collaboration with missionaries Alexander Wylie and Joseph Edkins.

In October 1862, a disguised Wang Tao, escorted by several people from the British Consulate, boarded a Jardine Matheson ship named Rona bound for Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, James Legge, the principal of the Anglo-Chinese College invited Wang Tao to stay at the London Mission Society hostel and to assist him in the translation of The Thirteen Classics.

In this period, Wang Tao also took on the job of editor in chief of a Chinese newspaper Hua Zi News in Hong Kong, this was the beginning of his journalism career.

He wrote a letter to Wang Tao, inviting him to come to Scotland to continue assisting in the translation of more Chinese classics.

After a short stay of a little under two weeks, Wang Tao crossed the English Channel from Calais to Dover and took a train to London.

He talked about the importance of cultural exchange between east and west, and claimed that the whole world was heading toward a common great unity (大同).

Having finished his part in the translation of the Chinese Classics, Wang Tao returned to Hong Kong in the winter of 1870.

On 5 February 1874[e] Wang Tao founded Tsun-wan yat-po (1874–1947, Universal Circulating Herald), the first Chinese daily newspaper in history.

During his ten-year career as editor in chief of Universal Circulating Herald, Wang Tao penned close to a thousand editorials calling for the reform of the Chinese political system, by adopting a British style parliamentary monarchy.

He visited many cities such as Nagasaki, Nagoya and Tokyo, and notes of this journey became one of his books: A Record of Travels in Japan (Fu-sang yu-chi).

[g] As a scholar who had lived in Europe and who had an in-depth understanding of European politics and culture, he enjoyed very high esteem in Japan.

In 1884, the influential Li Hongzhang sent a letter to the governor of Shanghai, writing: "That gentleman from Kunshan is a rare genius with encyclopedic knowledge.

Medhurst, A. Wylie and J. Edkins to translate western religion books and western sciences into China; on the other hand, he also played an important role in assisting James Legge in the translation of a large number of important ancient Chinese classics into English.