Tom Carter of San Francisco is an internationally published freelance photojournalist, travel writer and author specializing in the People's Republic of China. Tom has traveled extensively throughout all 33 Chinese provinces and autonomous regions and currently resides in Beijing. Tom's byline credits include writing exclusive travel features for every major English-language publication in the P.R.C., and he is the author of 'CHINA: Portrait of a People,' a definitive 600-page book of photography focusing on life and humanity in today's China, due out in late 2007.

CHINA: Portrait of a People author and photographer Tom Carter expounds on Chinese censorship, peasant riots and how insolvency helped inspire his new book in this first exclusive interview.

Backpacker savant Tom Carter offers his top five "real" China destinations.

Photojournalist Tom Carter crawls the kora around Asia's Holiest Mountain.

Photojournalist Tom Carter travels across Kham, East Tibet, to get the truth about Tibet's Permit Myth.

To a pulsating background score of 200 beat per minute Arabic tabla drums and the two-stringed dutar, the bizarre bazaar dramatically segues into heaps of faux jewelry, henna hair dye and cheap cosmet...

While the name Xanadu invokes an air of mystery, there is in fact no “snow-white mares with sacred milk, rich and beautiful meadows” as observed by Marco Polo, nor Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “stately p...

The teal twilight of the water then disappears into placid marshland before dramatically debuting into pearly shoals cascading in a series of multi-level falls so dazzling that any passerby might excl...

Spanning landscapes of wares, art, precious stones and revolutionary memorabilia meet mountains of books, furniture and sundry jewelry.

Can dusty destitute backpacker and author Tom Carter handle one week in Asia's wealthiest city?

Photojournalist Tom Carter goes inside the craziest youth hostel in Communist China.

"It is the politicians who draw the borders, otherwise we are all friends here!"

They spoke very little Mandarin, and of course no English, so we relied on gestures and smiles in an attempt to learn about each other.

Xinjiang's predominant nationality is the Uygur, a vibrant and outgoing culture of Central Asian descent whom this writer likes to refer to as The Desert People.

It is not surprising that Hang Dynasty exiles were once banished to 'The Edge of the Earth' as fatal punishment.

In between turning 1,200 vibrantly painted prayer wheels, the resplendently ornamented nomads rest beneath stupas to sip yak butter tea, a living portrait of Tibetan culture.