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 child is seen during celebrations of Reindeer Breeder Day, the main holiday of indigenous peoples of the Russian Extreme North, in the village of Nosok on Taymyr Peninsula in north-central Siberia, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Russia on April 17, 2021. (Photo by Alexander Ryumin/TASS)

In this undated photo released Tuesday April 13, 2021, by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, A Tu-160 strategic bomber of the Russian air force is shown on a training mission somewhere in Russia. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday described a massive military buildup in western Russia as part of drills intended to check the armed forces' readiness amid the threats posed by NATO. (Photo by Vadim Savitsky/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP Photo)

In this Thursday, June 14, 2018, file photo, students wear virtual reality goggles during a science class at Pyongyang Teachers' University, a teacher training college, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)

Pedestrians wear masks as smoke and haze from bushfires in New South Wales blankets the CBD in Sydney, Australia, 10 December 2019. The New South Wales environment department says visibility across east and southwest Sydney was at a “hazardous” level on Tuesday morning, while air quality was poor in southwest Sydney and hazardous in northwest Sydney. (Photo by Steven Saphore/EPA/EFE)

People take part in a gay pride parade in Warsaw, Poland, on Saturday, June 8, 2019. The Equality Parade is the largest gay pride parade in central and Eastern Europe. It brought thousands of people to the streets of Warsaw at a time when the LGBT rights movement in Poland is targeted by hate speeches and a government campaign depicting it as a threat to families and society. (Photo by Czarek Sokolowski/AP Photo)

An air plane takes off from the airport as air traffic is effected by the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Frankfurt, Germany, March 16, 2020. (Photo by Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)

In this photo taken on Saturday, May 2, 2020, funeral workers, wearing protective suits, lower the coffin of Semen Muchka, 71, who died of coronavirus disease, into the grave at a cemetery in Krynytsya, Ukraine. (Photo by Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo)