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 black bull sarcophagus stands at Puri Ubud during the Hindu Royal cremation – also know as the Pengabenan – for the late Anak Agung Niang Rai, mother of Gianyar Regent, Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardana Sukawati, at Puri Ubud in Gianyar Bali on August 17, 2011 in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. Niang Rai died in a Denpasar hospital in May; her actual cremation will take place on August 18 and will involve a nine level, 24m high 'bade' or body carring tower, made by upto 100 volunteers from 14 local villages. It will be carried to the cremation by 4500 Ubud residents. (Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

“Eid ul-Fitr, Eid al-Fitr, Id-ul-Fitr, or Id al-Fitr, often abbreviated to Eid, is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting (sawm). Eid is an Arabic word meaning “festivity”, while Fiṭr means “breaking (the fast)”. The holiday celebrates the conclusion of the twenty nine or thirty days of dawn-to-sunset fasting during the entire month of Ramadan. The first day of Eid, therefore, falls on the first day of the month Shawwal”. – Wikipedia

A boat paddles behind a fence near a plane sitting on the flooded tarmack of the closed Don Muang airport November 3, 2011 in Bangkok,Thailand. The airport was used as a domestic terminal and was formerly the International airport. Thailand is experiencing the worst flooding in over 50 years and has affected more than nine million people. Over 400 people have died in flood-related incidents since late July according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Family members watch on as a bride and groom leave their house to be married in West Mosul on November 3, 2017 in Mosul, Iraq. Five months after Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city was liberated from ISIL in a nine-month long battle, residents have returned to the destroyed city to rebuild their lives. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

In this February 27, 1984, file photo, singer Placido Domingo laughs with members of the Rockettes at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The singer and dancers met while rehearsing for Channel Thirteen's “Gala of Stars 1984”. Nine women in the opera world have told The Associated Press that they were sexually harassed by Domingo, one of the most celebrated and powerful men in opera. The women say the encounters took place over three decades, at venues that included opera companies where he held top managerial positions. (Photo by Steve Friedman/AP Photo/File)

A handout photo made available by Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) shows veterinarian wearing protective masks and suit, conducting anesthesia procedure on Nenuah, a nine year old Bornean Orangutan before being transported and released to the Bukit Batikap protection forest, at the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rehabilitation Center in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, 15 February 2021. BOSF and the national nature conservation agency (BKSDA) released 10 orangutans back to the wild in Bukit Batikap Protection Forest in Central Kalimantan and the Kehje Sewen Forest in East Kalimantan amid the pandemic according to BOSF. (Photo by BOSF Handout/EPA/EFE)

The festival marks the end of the monsoon season and beginning of autumn. More than hundred girls under the age of nine gathered for the tradition of worshiping young pre-pubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy. The ritual holds a strong religious significance in Newar community. It is a community affair held primarily to save small girls from diseases and bad luck in the years to come. Photo: A young Nepalese girl dressed as a Kumari or living Goddess, smiles for camera as she waits for Kumari puja at Hanuman Dhoka, Basantapur Durbar Square in Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, September 17, 2013. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)