Aerial view of workers repairing fishing nets in preparation for a new round of fishing season on July 27, 2025 in Wenling, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province of China. (Photo by Zhu Haiwei/Zhejiang Daily Press Group/VCG via Getty Images)

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)

Some 1,250 students from the Assumption College flip their cards to form an image of Thailand's late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, in his honour, in Bangkok, Thailand, October 28, 2016. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

Professor Xie Yong works on an art installation of a beaver, which is made out of plastic and around 300,000 needles, in Shenyang, Liaoning province, July 23, 2013. The needles, according to Xie, represent the pain felt by animals when their fur is taken off to produce clothing. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A child dressed as Hindu god Krishna watches a mobile phone as a woman gives finishing touches to his costume on the occasion of “Janmashtami” festival marking the birth of Krishna in Ajmer on August 30, 2021. (Photo by Himanshu Sharma/AFP Photo)

Men carry a dog, wearing a costume and seated on a stool, as a form of respect as they believe that dogs found water for their ancestors, during a local festival for the Miao ethnic minority in Jianhe county, Guizhou Province, China, August 14, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

An Indian woman wrapped in a shawl travels with others on a bullock cart on a cold day at Jhansi district, in Bundelkhand, India, Monday, December 29, 2014. Most parts of north India Monday continued to shiver under biting cold with the mercury dipping several notches. (Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP Photo)

In this undated photo, the aerial view of Jingxing Bridge in autumn is shown, with trees turning red around and the West Lake going under it, in Hangzhou city, east China's Zhejiang province on November 18, 2020. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)