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 dog sits in the shade of a mangrove tree as a woman uses a fork to dig for shellfish on the reef-mud flats of a lagoon located at South Tarawa in the central Pacific island nation of Kiribati May 23, 2013. Kiribati consists of a chain of 33 atolls and islands that stand just metres above sea level, spread over a huge expanse of otherwise empty ocean. With surrounding sea levels rising, Kiribati President Anote Tong has predicted his country will likely become uninhabitable in 30-60 years because of inundation and contamination of its freshwater supplies. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)

Karis, an eleven week old lion cub, plays in fallen leaves brushed up by keepers in her enclosure at Blair Drummond Safari Park, near Stirling, Scotland, on November 20, 2013. (Photo by Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)

(L-R) Ruby Zinner, 21, Caroline Reinstadler, 22, Marie Kallis, 22, and Julia Bogdanoff, 21, wearing graduation caps and gowns drink champagne while taking graduation photos in Washington Square Park amid the Coronavirus pandemic on May 09, 2021 in New York City. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic NYU's commencement ceremony will be held virtually on May 19th. Students from the 2021 will be invited back for an in person graduation when public health guidelines allow. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

A Tibetan man stands nearby as a young tourist poses for photos on a white yak at the shore of the lake in Namtso in western China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, as seen during a government organized visit for foreign journalists, Wednesday, June 2, 2021. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

Hot-air balloons float over the Oka River during the Russian Sky International Balloon Festival in Ryazan Region, Russia on July 26, 2021. (Photo by Alexander Ryumin/TASS)

English-French actress and singer-songwriter Charlotte Gainsbourg attends the red carpet of the movie “Sundown” during the 78th Venice International Film Festival on September 05, 2021 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images)

Commuters wear protective face masks as they walk through a subway station, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Wednesday, December 1, 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Brazil joined the widening circle of countries to report cases of the omicron variant. (Photo by Andre Penner/AP Photo)