After the successful launching of Shenzhou VI?spacecraft on
Wednesday morning, people in the Zaoyang city of central China's
Hubei Province, astronaut Nie Haisheng's hometown, celebrated this
historic success, regarding Nie as a hero astronaut.
Nie's mother, wearing a new red sweater bought by Nie, watched
the live telecasting on the TV together with local officials and
villagers. At 9 a.m., when the spacecraft were blasted off from the
launching site, Nie's mother was excited to tears.
In front of Nie's house, about 1,000 white pigeons and 1,000
colorful balloons flied into the sky by students. Some Chinese
traditional performances were put on stage, with cheers and
applause heard everywhere.
"I was very nervous when the launching process began, but now I
feel so excited and proud of my brother," said Nie Daozhi, sister
of Nie Haisheng, noting that the whole family were looking forward
to Nie's safely returning.
Mo Bingzhong, a staff in the local government, said Nie's
experience would encourage more and more young men here to join
army, and to win honor for China as Nie.
Shi Tiandong, as Nie's classmate in senior middle school,
briefed reporters on Nie's life story as a young boy, saying that
Nie had good quality of psychology and a great passion for various
planes when he was a child. "Despite poverty, he often lent some
books about planes to read and study, and he told us that his dream
was to be a plane designer, to work for the aerospace undertaking
of our country," Shi said.
Xu Datian, Nie's teacher in local primary school, said Nie
suffered a lot in his childhood, for his family was very poor with
eight children. "Once, he even sold me a big fish for two yuan and
hand in the money for his tuition, but he worked very hard in his
study with good results," he said.
Li Jinghui is a doctor of local hospital in charge of nursing
Nie's mother who is ill in bed due to cerebral hemorrhage.
"When seeing the spacecraft safely rise, I am so excited. We
will work hard to nurse the mother of Nie Haisheng, ensuring that
she can see his dear son coming back safely from the space," she
said with tears in her eyes.
58-year-old Sun Ruixiang smiled, saying that he never thought
about Nie, a lovely boy in the past, will become a hero of our
nation. "This success also shows the advanced aero technology and
powerful national cohesion of our country," he added.
(Xinhua News Agency October 12, 2005)