Over 71 percent of Hong Kong young people feel their sense of pride for the motherland enhanced especially after the successful launch of Shenzhou-5 spaceship, a survey released Thursday said.

The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups interviewed 500 people, aged between 15 to 34, on Wednesday night and found that 71.4 percent respondents felt excited and were proud of being Chinese on the news of Shenzhou-5 launch.

More than 80 percent of those surveyed said the success of the Shenzhou-5 spaceship is conducive to strengthening China's international status. And they felt more confident in motherland’s space technology.

Over the past several days, the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups set up a message zone in its website for people to express their feelings on Shenzhou-5 launch. Up to now, more than 800 people have viewed the homepage and given their warm words to Yang Liwei, whom they thought is the hero of the nation.

(Xinhua News Agency October 17, 2003)