Robinson and his wife, Olga Olsen, both sailed to China as missionaries for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Robinson had always wanted to be a missionary in China and brought Olga along, who was a nurse in France during WW1. They arrived in China in the summer of 1925 and shortly after gave birth to their first child. They both attend the Yanjing School of Chinese Studies where they learned Chinese. After passing their language exams, they moved to Lintsing to work at the Lintsing Memorial Hospital. Robinson worked as one of the three physicians while Olga worked as a nurse at the hospital. They worked through the Central Plains War, even throwing a feast for General Ma Hung-Kuei. The hospital provided free care to thousands of local residents, refugees, and orphans with Robinson himself organizing a mass vaccination campaign in 1930.
In 1932 they moved to Tunghsien where Robinson became the superintendent at the T’ungchow Hospital. At this hospital Robinson worked through the Defence of the Great Wall where he treated many refugees and wounded soldiers. During his time at this hospital he took on multiple teaching positions at local schools. During the Second Sino-Japanese War he remained in the hospital despite calls from the US State Department to evacuate. Robinson stayed until November in 1941 when the war between the US and Japan was imminent.
An article in a newspaper written by Robinson in 1932