Tom Carter

Autumn is perhaps China's most precious season, a respite between sweltering summers and fatal winters. But it is only in the northern Sichuan highlands of Jiuzhaigou, China's natural wonderland, where fall can be witnessed in blazing splendor.

For the Chinese, constipation and urgency are indicative of a culture categorically limited in both time and space, where itinerary replaces independence and processed convenience is preferred over pleasure.

What patronizing Western travelers frequently encounter at the front desk of Chinese hotels is a sudden expulsion by the proprietor conveying in Chinese that NO FOREIGNERS ARE ALLOWED!

Cosmopolitan cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, which annually attract tens of millions of overseas visitors on business or holiday, applaud themselves for providing public order and relatively safe city streets where one can walk at just about any hour in relative safety.

China's hottest travel destinations like Yangshuo and Dali are renowned for their selection of lively hostels. But there is one hostel I shall especially never forget, where the vibe was so deliciously laid back that my intended two-day stopover turned into seven.

Having little luck finding an attractive job offer in the U.S., I decided to take my skills where they were wanted - China! However, I had to learn the hard way the ins and outs of this exciting career. Here's the real deal to help you make your decision.

Photojournalist and travel correspondent Tom Carter, author of CHINA: Portrait of a People, spent 2 years backpacking to all 33 provinces in China to capture the PRC's vast ethnic diversity on film, one of the only foreigners in the history of China to do so.

Backpacker savant Tom Carter, author of CHINA: Portrait of a People, spends a hilariously humbling week in China's crown jewel, where "even rich men feel poor."

Photojournalist Tom Carter, author of CHINA: Portrait of a People, takes us on a written tour of his five favorite ancient Chinese villages from across the P.R.C.

China photographer Thomas Carter spent 2 straight years backpacking across the 33 provinces of the PRC to complete his groundbreaking, 600-page CHINA: Portrait of a People.

Today's Chinese nightclubs (Yezonghui) vary from their western counterparts in that headshaking (an effect of Chinese "Yaotouwan" Ecstasy pills) and a trampoline floor replace actual dancing, while ceaseless DJ call-and-response over really bad Euro-House techno substitutes for music. In addition to the go-go girls in their revealingly short skirts and platform boots, Chinese "Diting" megaclubs usually pay young ladies (wunü) to populate their dance floors in an effort to attract male patrons. However any attempt to approach these girls can be expected to be met with vacant stares and disinterest. Filmed circa 2004 by China photojournalist Tom Carter, author of 'CHINA: Portrait of a People,' a definitive 600-page volume of street photography on today's China.

Lloyd Lofthouse rivals his wife/famed authoress Anchee Min with his impressive debut My Splendid Concubine, tracing the true-life exploits of Sir Robert Hart, the celebrated expatriate credited for bringing old China into the 20th century.

Photographer and travel writer Tom Carter spent 2 years journeying to the 33 provinces of China in preperation for his groundbreaking book, CHINA: Portrait of a People, the most comprehensive book of photography on modern China ever published by a single author.