Photographer Page

Fritz Hoffmann

A Buddhist pilgrim climbs to sacred Mount Kawagebo in Yunnan, China, between rows of prayer flags. Her journey to circle the mountain will take nearly two weeks.

Sunlight and clear waters make for beautiful and healthy coral reefs off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea. A story in the March 2012 issue documented efforts to celebrate and preserve the seas of Arabia.

The entire May 2008 issue was dedicated to stories from China. In this photo from a culinary school in Hefei, chefs-in-training prepare vegetables in flaming woks.

At the Shaolin Temple in Zhengzhou, China, Buddhist monks use their arms to measure the circumference of a cypress tree.

A captive panda enjoys some bamboo in the afternoon sun at the Wolong Nature Reserve in China. Giant pandas are endangered, and a Chinese national program raises captive-born pandas that will one day be released into nature reserves and other protected areas.

A girl celebrates her 10th birthday with her friends, getting manicures at a Barbie-themed store in Shanghai, China.

Demand for pangolin scales, used in traditional Chinese medicine, has made the pangolin the most heavily trafficked non-human mammal in the world.

At a clinic in Beckley, West Virginia, Jeff Hendricks receives acupuncture and a plant-burning technique called moxibustion to ease pain related to four years of military service. He suffers from a brain injury, bulging disks in his neck, bone spurs, headaches, numbness in his hands, and PTSD. The Veterans Administration-approved treatment reduces the need for conventional drugs.

At China's Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine hospital, twin sisters Zheng Yue and Zheng Hao wear medicinal patches that contain a formula of herbal medicine used as a seasonal treatment to expel heat from the body during summer.

In a fire treatment session in Chengdu, an alcohol-soaked cloth is draped over a patient and set alight to warm the skin and open the pores; an herb-infused oil is then applied. The therapy aims to treat joint pain and other ailments, but research has yet to prove such claims.