Blog： National prestige

Yang Liwei, a 38-year-old lieutenant in the People’s Liberation Army, was only publicly confirmed as the first astronaut – or yuhangyuan – just before the flight began.
He boarded the capsule almost three hours before blast-off, cheered by a group of balloon-waving children.
Once aloft, he was said to be “reading a flight manual in the capsule of the Shenzhou V spacecraft and looked composed and at ease”.
State television said he would be eating freeze-dried shredded pork with garlic sauce and fried rice during his flight, and drinking tea.
The Shenzhou design is based on the Russian Soyuz three-person space capsule, although the Chinese space programme has made wide-ranging changes.
The project has become a matter of national prestige, with Shenzhou described in the official media as “China’s self-designed manned spaceship”.
“I will not disappoint the motherland,” Yang Liwei said before boarding the capsule.
“I will complete each movement with total concentration. And I will gain honour for the People’s Liberation Army and for the Chinese nation.”