Seven officers from the Pumaqangtang border police station patrol the Kampug glacier at an altitude of 5,600 meters above sea level in Lhokha, Tibet autonomous region, on Aug 19, 2020. (WANG JING / CHINA DAILY)

2020 was no ordinary year.

Over the past 12 months, the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc around the world. China was hit by the novel coronavirus outbreak, but it was successfully brought under control after painstaking efforts by local authorities, health workers and the people, which were steered by the government.

The country also reached a major landmark this year, when the last 52 impoverished counties managed to shake off extreme poverty, a historic moment in China's efforts to build a moderately prosperous society in an all-around way.

Mother Nature unleashed her wrath. Floods caused by heavy rain hit many areas in eastern, southern and southwestern China in June. However, coordinated disaster relief efforts helped keep the loss of lives and property at a minimum.

A team of the People's Liberation Army medical workers walk out of a transport plane at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport, Wuhan, Hubei province, on Feb 2, 2020. (CHEN XIAODONG / CHINA DAILY)

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Marking another important success in the country's moon exploration program, the Chang'e 5 spacecraft brought lunar samples back to Earth, only the third country to achieve the feat and the first in 44 years.

It was a year of major difficulties that tested the nation's resolve, but also one of many glorious moments. The ebb and flow of the year was recorded by our photographers.

Since 2012, China Daily has published "annual photos of international communication" at the end of each year, chosen from tens of thousands of photos used by this media organization. By compiling this "photo essay of the year", we hope to offer our readers a keepsake of the remarkable events of 2020.

The Chang'e 5 robotic probe unfurls the first free-standing Chinese national flag on the moon's surface on Dec 4, 2020. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

A medical worker looks at a makeshift hospital in Wuhan Sports Center in Wuhan, Hubei province, on March 1, 2020. (WANG JING / CHINA DAILY)

People pack the Beijing Wedding Expo on Oct 7, 2020. The two-day event was the biggest fair for wedding-related products and services in the city since the outbreak of COVID-19. (CHEN XIAODONG / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Passengers of a car cheer after passing an expressway tollgate in Wuhan, Hubei province, at midnight of April 8, 2020, as the city reopened after a 76-day lockdown. (KE HAO / FOR CHINA DAILY)

People climb to Atuleer village in Zhaojue county, Sichuan province, along a steel ladder with a handrail on May 13, 2020. All residents of the "cliff village" have been relocated to a community near the county seat. (HUA XIAOFENG / FOR CHINA DAILY)

A police officer moves a child from a flooded area in Chaohu, Anhui province, on July 20, 2020. (ZHANG HONGFEI / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Zhang Yuhuan cries with his son Zhang Baogang at home in Jinxian, Jiangxi province, on Aug 4, 2020, after a retrial cleared his name and freed him. He was wrongfully convicted of killing two children and served 27 years in prison. (WANG QIN / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Ninety-year-old Li Xiuqi, a veteran of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53), looks at a photo exhibition at the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution in Beijing on Oct 29, 2020. The show marked the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People's Volunteers Army joining the war. (ZOU HONG / CHINA DAILY)

Residents in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, pose with a bus painted with patterns to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the country's first special economic zone, on Aug 26, 2020. (ZHOU SHUNBIN / CHINA DAILY)

Journalists take photos of a bronze sculpture of a horse's head looted by invading Anglo-French forces 160 years ago at Yuanmingyuan in Beijing on Dec 1, 2020. (ZOU HONG / CHINA DAILY)

Chen Bo, a welder working at the National Convention Center construction site, takes a drink of water during his break on April 14, 2020. The brightly lit Olympic Tower can be seen in the background. (KUANG LINHUA / CHINA DAILY)

People line up for nucleic acid testing on June 15, 2020 at Guang'an Gymnasium in Xicheng District, Beijing. (ZOU HONG / CHINA DAILY)

A visitor is drawn by a fresco on a wall in Palian village, Tengchong, Yunnan province, on Aug 17, 2020. (ZHANG WEI / CHINA DAILY)

The traditional "sunning of the Buddha" ceremony with thangkapaintings is held during Shoton Festival at Drepung Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet autonomous region, on Aug 19, 2020. Shoton Festival, which literally means the "Yogurt Banquet Festival", is one of the most important festivals for the Tibetan ethnic group. (TANG BIN / FOR CHINA DAILY)

With their proud but anxious relatives looking on, children holding the pipa wait to sit a music exam organized by the Jiangsu Provincial Musicians' Association in Hai'an, Jiangsu province, on Aug 26, 2020. (XU JINBAI / CHINA DAILY)

Technicians bag harvested rice before weighing the crop at an experimental field of a third-generation hybrid rice variety in Hunan province's Hengnan county on Nov 2, 2020. The yield of the field's summer and fall harvests combined surpassed 22.5 tons per hectare, setting a record and realizing a goal set earlier by renowned agricultural expert Yuan Longping. (ZHOU WEI / CHINA DAILY)

China launches Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in South China's Hainan province on Nov 24 early morning. (XU JINGXING / CHINA DAILY)