The Borealis in the second decade of December 2023 gets ready to leave Liverpool for the Classic Christmas Markets cruise. It will call at Zeebrugge, Amsterdam and Hamburg to take in some of Europe’s best festive markets. (Photo by Bav Media)

“Adventurers have gone deep underground to discover previously unexplored caves in these pictures. The awe-inspiring snaps show the cavers dwarfed by the huge series natural rock chambers in the Leye – Fengshan Geopark, China. Belgian photographer Francois-Xavier De Ruydts, 33, captured the team of explorers as they trekked through the deep wonderground in January 2014”. – Caters News. Here: Caving expedition in Fengshan, China, Guangxi province. (Photo by Francois-Xavier De Ruydts/Caters News)

Chinese female weightlifter Xiang Yanmei, who competes in the 69 kg weightclass, rests with a weight on her stomach as she checks her phone during a training session in preparation for the Rio Olympics at the Training Center of General Administration of Sports in China on July 20, 2016 in Beijing, China. Xiang Yanmei won the World Championships in 2013 and 2015. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A father crosses a road with his twin daughters in Shanghai, China September 28, 2018. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

Human Connection Award: People and Planet Ocean – Winner – Steve Woods. A free diver interacts with a sperm whale among a cloud of sargassum weed, Dominica. (Photo by Steve Woods/Ocean Photographer of the Year 2022)

A bus goes through a flooded street in Wuhan, Hubei province, China July 6, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Students from the University of St Andrews jump into The North Sea, as a good luck tradition before exams start on the East Sands in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland on May 1, 2018. (Photo by Derek Allan/Alamy Live News)

A dramatic rise in owning exotic pets in China is fuelling global demand for threatened species. The growing trade in alligators, snakes, monkeys, crocodiles and spiders is directly linked to species loss in some of the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Here: A fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) is groomed in a pet store in central Beijing. Native to the Sahara in North Africa, the species became a popular pet after being depicted as a character in Disney’s 2016 animated movie Zootopia. Individuals can cost between $2,000–$3,000. (Photo by Sean Gallagher/The Guardian)