Yang, who carried out China's first space mission, Shenzhou-5, in October 2003, called spaceflight "a very hard job, but it is also a job that makes us feel very proud."

The 413th person to enter space, Yang previously had flown 1,350 hours in fighter planes over a period of 15 years. After a selection process lasting two years, Yang became a taikonaut - a Chinese astronaut.

Astronaut training in Russia was very harsh, Yang said. Once, two Chinese astronauts training in the country's arctic area had to brave temperatures of minus 52 degrees Celsius for three days in order to test their survival abilities.

Each trainee's food was supplied by quota, but the Chinese managed to save one day's food from the Arctic. "Why?" He asked rhetorically. "Because they wanted to bring it back for our research."

In reply to a question, Yang denied that Chinese space vehicles are copies of the Russian Soyuz." To meet the requirements of the space environment, all spaceships are similar in shape," he answered. "It is a matter of technological development and has nothing to do with copying," he said.

When Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin traveled into space for the first time in human history, on April 12, 1961, he experienced gravitational forces equivalent to nine times his own weight.

For Yang during his Shenzhou-5 flight, the G forces were only four times his own weight, which almost any person in good health can tolerate.

Chinese astronauts will take a spacewalk when they fly Shenzhou-7, he disclosed. Regarding a manned Chinese mission to the Moon, Yang said it is too early to mention it and no Chinese astronaut had so far been trained for this purpose.

He said his training contained some funny incidents. There was a toilet in the spaceship, but it could not be used before it entered orbit. Yang said he wore a diaper during his space flight, although he didn't urinate in it. "Better not to piss in the diaper," he said, "Babies don't like it, nor do adults."

"When the spaceship entered outer space, I saw my beautiful homeland," he said. "I was amazed by the view." Looking through the window, Yang saw the spacecraft lit up by the Sun. He also saw the blue Earth covered by white clouds, China's coastline, the seas and oceans.

"All these made me feel the greatness of Mankind, the greatness of the Chinese nation, and the greatness of our nation's power in science and technology," Yang said.

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