Chen Xibo, 30, native of Zhaotong county from Southwest China's Yunnan province, along with other 4 family members, began this year's seasonal expedition in the cotton rich region to help harvest the crop two months ago.

An experienced worker, Chen expects at least a half of this year's total income after 3 months hard work collecting cotton here. A day begins after a sleep in a friend's home that is just a walking distance to the field, a big breakfast before dawn, work continues till dark only with a simple lunch break.

Starting this job 13 years ago, Chen is one of the thousands of the seasonal worker tide for the cotton high time in Xinjiang since the 1990s, but he is now seeing less people working in the traditional way of harvest as more machines are introduced into the field to perform the hard, time consuming labor.