I find these pictures to be very misleading. Did the author have his camera 'checked' and all the not so great pictures deleted when crossing back into China?

Because when I went there what's shown in the pictures represents only what they want you to see. You can see a lot of poverty, undernourishment, and lack of basic infrastructure even if you follow the approved tour route to the letter. He managed to snap a lot of pictures from his bus, so why not show the less impressive shots as well? It's impossible to not see any this when you traverse the whole country from north to south.