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)

“Left behind” children Luo Hongni, 11 (L) and brother Luo Gan,10, carry flowers to be used as feed while doing chores in the fields on December 18, 2016 in Anshun, China. Like millions of Chinese children, the four Luo siblings are being raised by their grandparents in rural China as their parents left to find work in urban areas. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Looking for an escape from the daily realities of crisis-ridden Venezuela, Carmen Gomez finds solace receiving visitors on the roof of her Caracas apartment building every morning: groups of blue and gold macaws that arrive at daybreak. Here: A macaw lands in Carmen Borges' hand while she stays at a rooftop of a building in Caracas, Venezuela, June 12, 2019. (Photo by Manaure Quintero/Reuters)

Nepalese Hindu women pray to worship Lord Shiva during the first day of the Sarwan Brata festival, the month of fasting, at the premises of Pashupati Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, 18 July 2016. Thousands of married and single Nepalese Hindu women will gather in temples for each Monday of the Sawan month (spanning from 16 July to 16 August) to pray for a long and prosperous life of their husbands or for a chance to find a good one. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA)

Plaster cast moulds of victims of the Mount Vesuvius eruption lie on a display table in a laboratory at Pompeii October 13, 2015. An expert team made up of archaeologists, radiologists, orthodontists and anthropologists began on September 2015 to use CAT scan technology (computerised axial tomography) to peer inside the plaster cast moulds of Pompeii's victims, in a study that has added more detail to previous findings. A 16-layer scan had to be used in order to penetrate the hardened plaster but the results showed up impressive skeletal remains and near perfect teeth. (Photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters)

Winner. “This was taken in the South Ari Atolls, Maldives, as the south-west monsoon season was setting in. It features my partner – and dive buddy – Emma after surfacing at the end of the last dive of the day to find 1.5 metre swells and dark monsoon clouds. MICK RYAN, JUDGE: This beautiful portrait of a diver in an ocean swell below a menacing sky stands out this month for its emotional and elemental beauty. It is a reminder that while we may play among nature we are always dwarfed by its power and must be constantly on our guard”. (Photo by Simon Dunn/The Guardian)

A storm whips through a tented area occupied by Nepalese earthquake survivors as a mother grabs her infant child and runs to find shelter in Kathmandu, Nepal 23 May 2015. Nepalese, who lost their homes in earthquake and fear aftershocks, have been living in temporary shelter in open ground which they had to flee because of the heavy rain and powerful wind. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA)

A girl with a ritual garland headdress smiles during a traditional Midsummer Night celebration, in the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, July 6, 2020. Ukrainian girls believe the ages-old ceremony would help them to find their true love partners, as the pagan Slav festival is still celebrated in Ukraine, as Kyiv has lifted the coronavirus lockdown restrictions. (Photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)