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)