Willpower and the survival instinct

Before I became a reporter, my impression of life in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps revolved around boundless fields of cotton. That's because I had to spend at least one month every year in my middle school period helping pick cotton at the Xinhu Farm under the Sixth Division, about 30 kilometers from my hometown county.

However, those childhood impressions were totally gone by the time I finished a series of interviews marking the 60th anniversary of the Corps.

During a five-day period, I visited a number of XPCC divisions: The Twelfth, which is responsible for urbanization programs; the Sixth, which focuses on the modernization of agriculture; and the Eight, which specializes in industrialization.