The XPCC also made special arrangements this year to provide mooncakes and fruits for the pickers far away from home during the major Mid-Autumn Festival, which fell on Sept 30 this year. Some farms have also purchased insurance for their pickers.

Li says the XPCC will arrange a total of 95 special trains for the cotton pickers after the harvest season so they reach home safe and sound.

Some local governments in Xinjiang also reached out to other provinces during spring to ensure that their cotton growers can have enough workers in autumn. To attract the pickers, they set up 24-hour reception centers every day for the workers, issuing guidelines for prices and ensuring that employers do not delay wages or cheat the workers.

Hu Zhaoguang says he booked 60 cotton pickers through connections from Shandong and 70 others from Mianyang, Sichuan province, before the cotton-picking season started.

"The usual payment is 2.2 yuan per kilo now. The wage I give is 1.8 yuan because I covered all their traveling costs. And I provide the pickers with good accommodation," he says.

"The cotton pickers are very picky now, they avoid bad bosses," Lang Yongqi says.

Cotton picker Wang Aihong from Shandong says life is pretty good out in the cotton fields. "The workload is not too strong and we can get good food, TV and hot water 24 hours a day."

She says cotton picking in Xinjiang has changed her life. "Before I first came here last year, I never realized that a woman like me could earn so much in just two months."

She makes the maximum use of her time here, spending every available second picking cotton "as if I am picking up gold".

Wang says she has also heard of the increasing use of machines this year. "But I believe Xinjiang still needs cotton pickers," she says.

The XPCC's Agriculture Bureau said earlier this year that although it will have more cotton picked by machines, it will set aside 20 percent of the fields for hand-picked cotton to help ensure the quality of their output.

"Even if I cannot get the work afterward, it is still a good experience for me. Before coming to Xinjiang I never got out of my county but now I can tell my future grandson about this faraway place," Wang says, adding that her biggest regret here is that she cannot go around in Urumqi for fear of "getting lost".

Hu Zhaoguang says there are also other areas similar to the cotton fields of Xinjiang. "I heard that some farmers I employed last year are also going to Gansu province to pick medlar (wolfberries). Opportunities always change with time; in the 1980s people worked in factories in the coastal areas of Southeast China and now they are going back home.

"At least the experience in Xinjiang can continue to inspire people with such opportunities."

Contact the writer at lixiaokun@chinadaily.com.cn. Mao Weihua in Urumqi contributed to this story.