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 woman dressed up as a zombie takes part in a zombie walk in the Gaslamp Quarter during the Comic Con International convention in San Diego, California July 13, 2012. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

A woman walks past servicemen of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), who take part in a rehearsal for the Victory Day parade in Donetsk, Ukraine on May 3, 2018. (Photo by Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

Municipal workers try to retrieve the lid of a manhole to prevent pedestrians from falling in, in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, September 20, 2017. Incessant rainfall in India's commercial capital has affected air and rail traffic, and schools and colleges remained shut for the day. (Photo by Rafiq Maqbool/AP Photo)

A Cambodian man rides his motor-cart loaded with goods along a street on the outskirts Phnom Penh, Cambodia on October 30, 2017. (Photo by Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP Photo)

Kosovo- born British singer and actress Rita Ora performs in Pristina on February 17, 2018 on the occasion of the 10 th anniversary of Kosovo Independence. Kosovo celebrates 10 years since it declared independence, a moment of pride for its ethnic Albanian majority, although sovereignty remains fiercely contested by Serbia. (Photo by Armend Nimani/AFP Photo)

A fisherman sorts his net next to the 37-meter-long “KAWS:HOLIDAY Companion” inflatable sculpture in Tsing Yi, Hong Kong, China, 21 March 2019. KAWS:HOLIDAY, made by US artist and designer Brian Donnelly known professionally as Kaws, will be displayed in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour from 22 to 31 March 2019. (Photo by Jerome Favre/EPA/EFE)

A Pakistani devotee dances to celebrate the three-day annual festival to pay tribute to the famous saint Al-Sheikh Ali Bin Usman Al-Hajveri known as Data Ganjbaksh at outside his shrine in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, November 20, 2016. Thousands of people traveled from all over Pakistan to attend the celebrations. (Photo by K.M. Chaudary/AP Photo)