Harvesting the fragrance
The Yili River Valley in Xinjiang autonomous region becomes a sea of purple fragrance in late summer, as workers set about the back-breaking task of harvesting, by hand, what has now become the world's third-largest lavender crop.
The flowers need to cut as soon as possible after they blossom, then quickly dried.
Huang Tingju, 50, is a rookie among the workers.
She came to Huocheng county in Xinjiang from Sichuan province when she was just 15, and normally works in nearby cornfields.
But this year, she is helping bring in her neighbor's lavender, to make some extra money.
Each morning she is bent double in the field by 6 am, and spends the next three hours cutting lavender, until the sun gets too hot to work.
| Top: As the sun rises, Huang Tingju starts her back-breaking morning, cutting lavender in her neighbor's field. Above: Lavender is valuable, so measurements have to be precise. Workers get paid by weight. Photos by Zhao Ge / Xinhua |
| Many local farmers work in the lavender fields during their time off from harvesting other crops. |
| Huang and her daughter-in-law are happy to enjoy the wonderful aromas together. |
| Workers load their fragrant sacks of flowers onto waiting tractors, which are ready to whisk the fresh crop off to market. |
(China Daily European Weekly 08/15/2014 page4)
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