"...Dead From Scorching Sun": China's Farmers Long For Rain Amid Drought

China Drought: Southern China has recorded its longest continuous period of high temperatures since records began more than 60 years ago, forcing power cuts that have hit agricultural workers hard.

For almost a decade, farmer Qin Bin, 50, has toiled his plot, growing peaches and dragon fruits for sale to visiting tourists at his orchard on the outskirts of the Chinese megacity of Chongqing.

But this year's crop is devastated, another casualty of a blistering heatwave that has engulfed southern China in the country's hottest summer on record and subsumed half its land in drought.

"This is absolutely the first time in my life encountering such a disaster," he tells AFP.

"This year is a very miserable one.