A female worker from northwest China's Gansu Province picks cotton in Hami Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on October 11, 2012. Xinjiang has a total cotton cultivated area of 1.65 hectares, and its total cotton output is expected to exceed 3.2 million tons this year, half of the country's total, according to Xinjiang Commission of Development and Reform. As of 2011, Xinjiang has led the country in terms of cultivation acreage and total output for 19 successive years (XINHUA) |