Cute giant pandas enjoy life in China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Panda in Wenchuan County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Sichuan Province, 8 February, 2023. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A giant panda cub falls from the stage while 23 giant pandas born in 2016 seen on a display at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China, September 29, 2016. (Photo by Rex Features)

China's Women Badminton team gather for a group cheer before a final match against Indonesia for the Uber Cup held in Chengdu in southwestern China's Sichuan Province, Sunday, May 5, 2024. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

Panda keepers hold cubs while posing for photos ahead of the new year at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, China's southwestern Sichuan province on December 29, 2022. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

Zhu Jianqiang, or “strong-willed pig”, famous for surviving more than a month buried in the ruins after the magnitude-8.0 Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, feeds on food sent by admirers wishing it a safe winter in Jianchuan Museum, Chengdu city, southwest China's Sichuan province, 11 January 2021. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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)

Yan Zhengming (R), 94, and his wife Zhou Suqing (C), 90, attend their wedding ceremony at their home, on the 70th anniversary of their marriage, in Quxian county of Dazhou, Sichuan province, China, May 15, 2015. The wedding, organized by local charity groups, was a long-time wish of veteran of the World War Two Yan, who married Zhou 70 years ago, but could not afford to have a wedding ceremony, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A pair of giant pandas play in their enclosure at the Beijing Zoo on June 5, 2012 in Beijing, China. With an estimated 1,600 living in the wild, the endangered giant panda dwell in a few mountain ranges in central China, in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces. (Photo by Lintao Zhang)