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Astronaut Yang Liwei and the 1.3-billion nation as a whole were eulogised by newspapers releasing their first editions since Shenzhou V returned to earth on Thursday.
"Dragon Takes to the Sky," was the theme of a special supplement of the Beijing Evening News, invoking one of China's most frequently used symbols.
The popular paper said space provided an opportunity for China to make up for missing out on the age of exploration 500 years ago.
"The motherland celebrates with jubilation," the Beijing Morning Post exclaimed on its front page, using a red ink that is reserved for only the most festive occasions.
A large photo showed the 38-year-old space traveller waving, all 14 orbits of the Earth written into his tired smile.
That was just the first of 16 pages -- most of them in full color -- marking the event inside.
Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily ran an editorial entitled "Glory of the Great Motherland."
"(Shenzhou V is) a great historic step forward in scaling the height of science and technology, an extraordinary feat of the ceaseless efforts of the Chinese people in making the country strong and a glory of the great motherland," it said.
Even newspapers known for their conscientious coverage of weighty matters like the economy embraced the Yang-mania.
The Financial News, the central bank newspaper, relegated the September money supply figure to a second place to make room for "space hero" Yang's triumphant arrival in Beijing following his 23-hour mission.
Meanwhile, the English-language China Daily -- intended partly for an overseas readership -- gave reassurances in an editorial that China's space program posed no military threat.
The paper noted "a lingering ambivalence" in the way some foreign nations had congratulated China on the space flight, saying some were observing the space program with "suspicious curiosity."
"The non-aggressive nature of the Chinese should not be hard to understand given the country's defensive military strategies through the centuries," it said.
SPACE.WIRE |