Full moon shines over the Bird's Nest
BEIJING, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- China's first moon probe satellite Chang'e-1 sent back greetings to earth on Sunday, China's Mid-Autumn Festival.
"Let's (all Chinese compatriots) enjoy together the bright moonlight and look forward to our reunion," the verbal wishes said, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence.
The traditional festival, which falls on the full-moon fifteenth day of the eighth month in the Chinese lunar calendar, is associated with reunion.
The satellite also sent two songs, both featuring reunion, besides the verbal wishes.
One is named "Ali Mountain Girl", a famous song describing young people's love affair of Gaoshan ethnic group in Taiwan. It was created in 1949 by Deng Yuping for an Ali Mountain-related movie and became very popular across China in 1960s.
The other song was named after one famous Chinese poem written by Su Shi, an eminent writer of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), saying "We (lovers) wish each other a long life so as to share the beauty of this graceful moonlight, even though far apart."
The song was written in the 1980s for Teresa Teng -- "pop music classic" singer in the heart of Chinese worldwide, by Liang Hongzhi, a famed singer in Taiwan.
Launched on Oct. 24 last year, the satellite was named after "Chang'e", the name of a fairy in traditional Chinese folklore, who lived on the moon with a rabbit and always missed her beloved husband.
The satellite, marked the first step of China's ambitious three-stage moon mission, had orbited the moon 3,024 times as of Aug. 1.
As the first Mid-autumn Festival holiday has come along in China from Sept.13 to 15, 55.7 percent of the 1,313 respondents said they would spend the holiday with their families, according to an online survey by the website Sohu.com.
