For Apple's American workers, today is a big day, with the release of the iPhone 5.

But behind the scenes at the Foxconn factory in China, tasked with churning out 57 million iPhones each year, there are not so many smiling faces - in fact, the production lines appear to one of gruelling shifts carried out throughout the night as supervisors exhort their workers for more.

Chinese news agency Shanghai Evening Post sent a journalist into the Tai Yuan district's Foxconn factory undercover, during which the reporter trained for seven days, before spending three days working on on the factory floor, assembling 'back-plates' for the iPhone 5.

The journalist, who is keeping his identity secret, kept a diary of his ten day and website micgadget translated it(...)

He continues: 'The first night sleeping at Foxconn dormitory is a nightmare.

'The whole dormitory smells like garbage when I walked in.

'It’s a mixed of overnight garbage smell plus dirty sweat and foam smell.

'Outside every room was fully piled up with uncleared trash.

'When I opened my wardrobe, lots of cockroaches crawl out from inside and the bedsheets that are being distributed to every new workers are full of dirts and ashes.

'When someone has asked about the suicide issues, the management staff didn’t avoid the topic but not willing to discuss too much on it.

'During the suicide topic discussion, someone has voiced out that the bad living environment will sure lead to more suicides.

'Also I have noticed that all the windows in the dormitory has been framed behind bars.

'After the training session we are being arranged to start work very swiftly but it’s already night. We are only allowed to rest during the day time.

'After all the intensive trainings and briefings, I had a fever and terrible headache before I can even start work.

'I requested to visit the hospital in the factory, but there’s only one doctor on shift handling 4-5 patients at the same time(...)

'An iPhone 5 back-plate run through in front of me almost every 3 seconds.

'I have to pick up the back-plate and mark 4 position points using the oil-based paint pen and put it back on the running belt swiftly within 3 seconds with no errors(...)

After such repeated action for several hours, I have terrible neck-ache and muscle pain on my arm. A new worker who sat opposite of me gone exhausted and laid down for a short while.

'The supervisor has noticed him and punished him by asking him to stand at one corner for 10 minutes like the old school days.

'We worked non-stop from midnight to the next morning 6 a.m but were still asked to keep on working as the production line is based on running belt and no one is allowed to stop. I’m so starving and fully exhausted(...)