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 Georgia Bulldogs cheerleader celebrates a 33-18 victory over Alabama in the 2022 NCAA National Championship football game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Tuesday, January 11, 2022. Georgia defeated Alabama 33-18. (Photo by Aaron Josefczyk/UPI/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Children wave Vietnamese and American flags while waiting for arrival of U.S. President Barack Obama (not pictured) before a welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam May 23, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Kham)

World Champion Trials bike rider Jack Field of Australia poses after performing the highest backflip on a motorcycle ever recorded as he flips his motorbike upside down on the roof of Melbourne's Eureka Tower (297.3 metres) during a AUS-X Open media opportunity at Eureka Tower on May 22, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. The largest international Supercross and action sports event in the world outside of the USA, the AUS-X Open will be held at Melbourne's Marvel Stadium on November 30 2019. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Lance Cpl. Blas Trevino of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, shouts out as he is rescued on a medevac helicopter from the U.S. Army's Task Force Lift “Dust Off”, Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment after he got shot in the stomach outside Sangin, in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan on June 11, 2011. The Army's 'Dust Off' crew needed two attempts to get him out, as they were fired upon and took five rounds of bullets into the tail of their aircraft. (Photo by Anja Niedringhaus/AP Photo/File)

Bikini Contest in Daytona Beach, Florida’s Atlantic coast, circa 1980s. (Photo by Evan Hurd/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images)

A herd of elephants cross a road that passes through the flooded Kaziranga National Park in the northeastern state of Assam, India, July 12, 2017. (Photo by Anuwar Hazarika/Reuters)

In this Monday, July 24, 2017 photo, a police officer walks in front of a mural during a protest demanding an end to the current pension fund system, in Santiago, Chile. Protesters say the government pension system robs retirees of fair pension payments, and are demanding a new social security system with higher payments. (Photo by Esteban Felix/AP Photo)