Rain in an Ancient Town by Chen Li.

Photographer Chen Li has become the first Chinese national to win one of the top prizes at the Sony World Photography Awards, according to hunan.gov.cn.

Chen won the Travel category of the Open Competition for his photograph, Rain in an Ancient Town, and he was also named Open Photographer of the Year.

The Open Competition, designed for amateurs, is one of the four competitions of the contest, and the other three are the Professional Competition, Student Focus and Youth Award.

The Sony World Photography Awards, held by the World Photography Organization, is widely recognized as one of the leading photography contests. The organizing committee of this year's event received a total of more than 100,000 photographs from around the world.