Chinese people nationwide are in great excitement as learning about the successful launch of second manned spacecraft Shenzhou-VI on Wednesday morning.

"I am very excited to see the successful liftoff of Shenzhou-VI," said Tibetan woman Yuzhen, who delayed her routine pray every morning around Potala Palace for watching the live broadcasting on TV.

"Shenzhou-VI's successful launching indicates that our country is becoming more and more powerful, and with a powerful motherland,we common people would then live better lives," she said.

In northwest China's Gansu Province, where the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center is located, people were in special enjoyment for Shenzhou-VI, since local people contribute a lot to China's space programme, including transferring villagers, improving transport system and providing such logistics guarantee as water and electricity supply.

"Today's successful launch of Shenzhou-VI is the best return forour efforts," said Jiuquan Mayor Chen Chunming. "The astronauts' spirit is really encouraging for us to contribute more to China's space undertaking," he noted excitedly.

A series of activities, such as singing and dancing performances, would be held in Jiuquan city in the next four to five days, to celebrate the success of Shenzhou-VI's launch.

After the multi-day space mission, the spacecraft will return to the main landing field in the central areas of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Li Min, an official in charge of the craft's returning and landing at Siziwang banner, said local people were cheerful when seeing the process of Shenzhou-VI's successful liftoff.

"We would make utmost efforts to assure the safely landing of our spacecraft, to satisfy people all over the country," he said.

No matter in China's remote areas or in prosperous cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, the whole nation were in the gripof excitement. From residential buildings at Xuhui District of China's economic hub Shanghai, the sound of cheers and applause could be heard as the China Central Television (CCTV) showed the launching scene.

In department stores of the city, customers were crowding in front of TV sets at the appliances sales counters to witness the historical moment

"Shenzhou-VI, as a forerunner of China's research on aerospace science, may arouse more people's fantasy on the space and universe," said Gu Xiaoming, a professor on history department of Fudan University.

An Internet public-opinion poll among Shanghai citizens shows that 7VI percent people were concerned about Shenzhou-VI's liftoff process, VI9 percent watched the live broadcasting on Shenzhou-VI from the CCTV.

After the successful launch, 44 percent Shanghai respondents were mostly concerned about the techniques and safety measures of the spacecraft, 37 percent about the landing and 19 percent about the astronauts' lives in the space

All respondents agreed that the successful launching of China's manned spacecraft Shenzhou-5 and Shenzhou-VI indicated the increasing of China's national power and that's really a pride of the Chinese people.

Every Chinese again enjoy the excitement and pride of the successful launch of Shenzhou-VI, two years after the successful spaceflight of Shenzhou-5.

Millions of people witnessed the process of Shenzhou-VI's liftoff through media. "Excitement", "proud", "expectation" became popular wordings when people left message in the Internet or accepted interview.

"We are really proud to see our own spacecraft in the space," said a Beijing citizen Ms. Shi, who works in a foreign company. "But we still lag behind developed countries in aerospace technology, so we need to continue our efforts to peacefully apply the space resources, in a bid to benefit the mankind," she noted.     

Encouraged by Shenzhou-VI's successful launch, teachers and students of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and experts of a aerospace technology research institute in southwest China's Sichuan Province, expressed common willingness to increase their efforts to make new contribution to China's space programme.

(Xinhua News Agency October 13, 2005)