Nine years ago, Tom Carter traveled from San Francisco to China, responding to a job posting that turned out to be a scam. He managed to find another job as a teacher, and saved enough money to embark on a 56,000 km trip through all of China's 33 provinces that lasted two years. Carrying a camera – just a a 4-megapixel point-and-shoot – Carter captured some amazing images of the widely varying landscape, people, and architecture across the nation. Photo: Buddhist pilgrim family from Sichuan. (Photo by Tom Carter via The Atlantic)

A chevrotain or mouse deer feeds in its enclosure at Zurich Zoo, Zurich, Switzerland, October 17, 2012. (Photo by Patrick B. Kraemer/AP)

Vendors selling marigold garlands, which are used to decorate temples and homes during the Hindu festival of Durga Puja, drink tea as they wait for customers at a wholesale flower market in Kolkata, India October 6, 2016. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

A model presents a creation by LARHHA during the Code'41 Andalusian Fashion Week at the Amphitheatre of Italica in Seville on March 21, 2021. (Photo by Cristina Quicler/AFP Photo)

A winter swimmer jumps into a pool in the frozen Songhua River during an activity for welcoming the Chinese New Year on January 30, 2022 in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province of China. (Photo by Liu Yang/VCG via Getty Images)

Raccoon Fritzi eats at the home of veterinarian Mathilde Laininger in Berlin, Germany, January 27, 2022. She cares for four raccoons that can no longer be released into the wild. Raccoon Fritzi has an Instagram account with ten thousand followers. (Photo by Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters)

A cat meows in it's owner's bag after fleeing from Kiev in Ukraine to Romania, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the border crossing in Siret, Romania, March 10, 2022. (Photo by Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

Studio artist Emma Meehan touches up a new waxwork figure of U.S. drag queen RuPaul which at 7.1feet (2.175 metres) is the tallest human wax figure to be displayed at Madame Tussauds in Blackpool, Britain on April 11, 2022. (Photo by Phil Noble/Reuters)