MEET THE PANEL Name: Nick Xiao Age: 28 Lives: Beijing Works: Banking professional Click here to meet the other panellists

But under this chorus of cheers, you can see people interpreting this event quite differently. Some are talking of a third mission, a space station coming soon, a moon landing in the next decade - awesome.

Others are watching the astronauts eating, sleeping, yawning and frowning with cultish devotion. After too much of David Beckham or Britney Spears, that's something cool for a change.

Meanwhile, many relish saying how they think other countries are reacting to this Chinese outer space encore - an uneasy US, a sullen Japan, a frightened India, an envious EU - but a Russia regretting its path over the past 15 years. Well, a bit overdone I suppose.

For me, this mission doesn't change, but definitely confirms, my view of China today - muscular, ambitious, yearning to wow others.

What can change my views of China and its place in the world then? A better distribution of the country's growing wealth; a more transparent government; a higher quality of life; and no more reports of my countrymen starved of oxygen in a container under the English channel.

These are down to earth for sure, but so is the landing capsule.