Tea farmer Xiang Xuejun has been growing Longjing tea, a variety of green tea, for three decades on his mountainside tea fields in Zhejiang province.

But since early July, when scorching temperatures brought a severe drought to southern China, the 65-year-old has had to carry water up the fields after his water source that fed irrigation pipes dried up.

"Never before have I experienced such a severe drought," he said.