When Townshend first came to Beijing in 2009, many outsiders pictured it as a dense, polluted metropolis. Following the government's consistent efforts, the city changed dramatically over the past decade. In Townshend's eyes, the city is home to a mosaic of mountains, wetlands, rivers, and parks that host more than 500 bird species — far more than in the United Kingdom's capital city of London.

"Beijing has wild cats, 17 species of snakes, and four to five times the number of butterfly species found in the UK," he says. "It's the capital of a country of 1.4 billion people, yet it's full of wildlife. That's pretty incredible."