For three years, photojournalist Tom Carter has been on an immense journey to photograph life in all the mainland's provinces and autonomous regions. With a minimal budget, the American has illegally snuck into Shanxi coal mines, slept in 15-yuan-a-night dosshouses and faced North Korean machine guns when he accidentally crossed the border at Changbaishan. Although the trip has been epic, his experiences were often humbling.

'I taught English for two years beforehand so I could save up to travel, and I really had to pinch my pennies to make it last,' Carter (seen below in Tibet ) wrote from an internet cafe in Inner Mongolia. 'The upside is that my insolvency resulted in experiences that staying at the Sheraton could never produce.'

The whole trip will be captured in his photo book, China: Portrait of a People, to be published by Blacksmith Books later this year. 'Strangely, no photo book about Chinese people had ever been done before.'