To China's children, astronaut Yang Liwei symbolizes pride, history and the stuff dreams are made of.

But to one kid at Beijing's Zhongguancun No 1 Primary School, he's just "Dad.''

And that reality has all the youngsters attending classes at the local campus greeting each morning's news much like 8-year-old Yang Ningkang, the astronaut's son, always greets his father.

Happily.

There's an eye-catching red banner hanging at the school's gate, celebrating Yang's safe return.

In fact, both Yang Liwei's son and Zhai Tianxiong, son of China's second-leading candidate for space travel, astronaut Zhai Zhigang, study in a third-grade class at the school.

The boys are excellent friends.

Li Hongyan, their teacher, told China Daily the two astronauts' sons are enrolled at the school along with six other children whose parents also work for the space programme.

"The successful launch of Shenzhou-V has inspired children's dream of working in future for space exploration,'' Li said.

Wang Luya, 8, who used to want to be a doctor after growing up, now wants to be a flight surgeon working with astronauts. Her classmate Ji Jiang said she wants to be a researcher, and study items returned from the space.

As for boys interviewed at the school, most have changed their occupational dreams after seeing the launch and Yang's safe return.

Now, they say, they want to fly to space and return as heroes.

Having talked with Yang Liwei a few times, Li said the lieutenant colonel impresses her as "a simple and low-key person.

"When I knew he was trained to be an astronaut -- an exalted the importance of his job once in a phone conversation -- he said in a calm tone that he was just doing a job as ordinary as mine,'' the teacher said.

Parents like Yang Liwei working for the country's space project are busy with their jobs most of the time, and usually leave caring for their children to their spouses, Li said.

Zhai Tianxiong said he can only see his father once or twice per week.

"I didn't meet Yang Liwei until his wife got sick,'' the teacher said. "That's when Yang Ningkang was in grade two.''

For some time, Yang Liwei had to take care of his sick wife and his son.

Fortunately, Yang Ningkang is not a child who causes parental headaches. The teacher said the boy is good at writing and has published a story about his father in a newspaper.

Like many other boys, he is clever and quick to respond, and sometimes naughty, the teacher indicated.

Indeed, the child is much like his dad, according to the astronaut's elder sister, Yang Lijun.

She told People's Daily that Yang Liwei was diligent, brave and simple in childhood.

One of Yang Liwei's classmates in primary school, Chen Suixin, said Yang had saved his life as a child when Chen fell in the water and other children panicked.

"If it were not for Yang Liwei's cool mind and bravery, I would not have survived that accident,'' said Chen.

In high school, Yang Liwei was a student and had good relationships with classmates.

Yang Yuhua, the flyer's teacher in Suizhong No 2 High School in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, said Yang Liwei had organized many activities in school and his classmates preferred to listen to his ideas.

"When I sent him to get a physical exam for his pilots' recruitment, we even joked about me taking a plane when he would be the pilot flying it,'' the teacher recalled.

Now the joke has turned into reality, and what's more exciting is that Yang Liwei has become the astronaut piloting a spacecraft to the space.

"When I heard Yang Liwei and the spacecraft have been successfully launched, I could not hold back my tears,'' the teacher said.

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