Children send birthday wishes to astronaut Jing Haipeng in space

Children from across the world have extended birthday wishes to taikonaut Jing Haipeng, who is currently orbiting the earth in lab Tiangong-2.

"Happy birthday Uncle Jing Haipeng, 'Tashi delek'," said a Tibetan primary school girl using the Tibetan greeting for good luck and best wishes. She also said that it was her dream to become an astronaut.

Jing, commander of the Shenzhou-11 mission, turned 50 on Monday.

Xinhua has collected over 10,000 birthday wishes for Jing from children from all over the world, including messages, pictures and videos sent from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as countries including the United States and Sweden.

"I feel lucky to be this close to an astronaut," said a pupil in Beijing. "I'm more than willing to send my birthday wishes to Uncle Jing."

A student from Hangzhou school for the deaf sent her birthday message by sign language. Two days ago, she asked the astronauts in the space lab whether they had seen aliens.

"I haven't seen aliens, yet, but I do harbor a hope that I will see aliens, and many other peculiar things aside," Chen Dong, Jing's teammate in the mission, replied in his Space Journal.

Xinhua has sent some of the children's messages, pictures and videos to Jing.