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)

Italy is the latest country to boast a sеx doll brothel amid predictions the market for robot romps is “going to explode” world-wide. “LumiDolls”, which operates robot knocking shops in Barcelona and in Moscow is now opening a bot bonking branch in the Italian city of Turin on September 3, 2018. (Photo by Giulio Lapone/IPA/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Women wearing Dirndl, a traditional Alpine folk dress, run to get a place in a tent for the opening of the 185th Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich, Germany, 22 September 2018. The Oktoberfest lasts until October 7 and is the world's largest beer festival. The beer festival typically draws over six million visitors. (Photo by Karl- Josef Hildenbrand/DPA/Alamy Live News)

A picture taken on October 5, 2018, shows a general view of Migingo island which is densely populated by residents fishing mainly for Nile perch in Lake Victoria, the continent's largest lake, on the border of Uganda and Kenya. More than 500 people live on the island, which is barely 2,000-square-metres. (Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP Photo)

A couple walk on a catwalk in a flooded Saint Mark Square during a period of seasonal high water in Venice on October 29, 2018. Venice frequently floods when high winds push in water from the lagoon, but Monday's levels are exceptional and forecast to rise even higher, to 160 centimeters (nearly 63 inches) by mid-afternoon. (Photo by Manuel Silvestri/Reuters)