China Daily takes trip with astronauts

Two front pages of China Daily and a blessing in digital form ended a space trip along with astronauts on the Shenzhou IX mission on Friday.

These and other messages and blessings were taken to China's space post office, which was set up inside the Tiangong-1 space lab module, by the astronauts on June 16.

The two front pages were from China Daily's Jan 9 and Dec 4 editions last year, two of the best-designed pages.

The Jan 9 edition's front page has a silhouette of China's famous dancer and choreographer, Yang Liping, with the moon in the background.

The Dec 4 edition's front page has a map of China made up of many kinds of Chinese grains.

Along with the pages was China Daily's blessing, which reads "China Daily extends its blessings from space to readers all over the world".

According to the space post office, astronauts, or "space mail carriers", took the space mailbox into Tiangong-1, handled the mail, and then brought it back to Earth.

The space post office was established on Nov 3. Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut, was named its director.

zhiyun@chinadaily.com.cn