A mother reacts as she pleads with police to allow her daughter to pass a checkpoint for cancer treatment after she arrived from Hubei province at the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge in Jiujiang, China, February 1, 2020. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Models prepare backstage before presenting a creation from the Heaven Gaia by Xiong Ying during the China Fashion Week in Beijing on September 4, 2022. (Photo by Wang Zhao/AFP Photo)

A bride gets tested for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a nucleic acid testing site, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Shanghai, China on November 15, 2022. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

People visit a frozen waterfall illuminated by colorful lights at Dadunxia sceneic area on December 25, 2022 in Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province of China. (Photo by Shi Youdong/VCG via Getty Images)

A staff member feeds a rabbit at the Bunny Style Hotel in Hong Kong, Wednesday, January 18, 2023. With the lifting of COVID restrictions, Hong Kongers are traveling again and some of those who keep rabbits at pets are booking them into a rabbit resort where they are fed, exercised and pampered with spa treatments. The Lunar New Year of the Rabbit is shining a particular spotlight on the popularity of the animals in the crowded city of tiny apartments. (Photo by Anthony Kwan/AP Photo)

Aerial view of people circling around bonfires to celebrate the Torch Festival on Axilixi Prairie on August 12, 2023 in Bijie, Guizhou Province of China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

People pose for photographs in the wind during Typhoon Saola in Tseung kwan O, in Hong Kong on Saturday, September 2, 2023. Typhoon Saola made landfall in southern China before dawn Saturday after nearly 900,000 people were moved to safety and most of Hong Kong and other parts of coastal southern China suspended business, transport and classes. (Photo by Billy H.C. Kwok/AP Photo)

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)