Beauticians of river

A group of cleaners spends the summer collecting floating garbage on the Yangtze River, the longest river in Asia. Battling scorching sun and tolerating the stench from the rubbish, these people are indeed unsung heroes trying to improve the quality of the waterway. A wide variety of tourist attractions are dotted along its length. Xiao Yijiu captures them through a lens in Zigui, Hubei province.

Cui Yonggu, 62, a garbage collector, takes a break from cleaning the water surface to the west of the Three Gorges Dam. By scooping up waste from the river, Cui earns 40-50 yuan ($6.3-$7.8) a day this summer.

Boaters scoop out trash flushed from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and send it to the riverside, to be transferred to waste disposal plants. In summer, when the Yangtze River sees the largest trash accumulation of the year, a person can scoop up 2-3 cubic meters of waste at a time.  Garbage collectors are local fishermen wanting an extra income to support their families.