Tourists play in front of a 3D painting on the wall of a house in Luoyuan village, Jinhua, Zhejiang province, August 26, 2015. The village hired a team to put on 3D paintings all over the valley as a method to attract tourists and improve the income of local villagers, according to local media. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

A petitioner with her grievances written on her clothes walks along a street in Beijing Tuesday, December 22, 2015. After months behind bars, Pu Zhiqiang, one of China's most prominent human rights lawyers, left a detention center Tuesday after receiving a suspended prison sentence in a case involving online comments critical of the ruling Communist Party. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

China has sent its first woman into space on a mission to dock with an orbiting station, the latest step in an ambitious programme to go to the moon and on to Mars.

Photo: China's first female astronaut Liu Yang, waves during a sending off ceremony before she departs for the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft rocket launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, China, Saturday, June 16, 2012. China will send its first woman and two other astronauts into space Saturday to work on a temporary space station for about a week, in a key step toward becoming only the third nation to set up a permanent base in orbit. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

An Indian Hindu devotee celebrates Holi, the spring festival of colours, during a traditional gathering at a temple in Nandgaon village in Uttar Pradesh state on March 16, 2019. Holi, the popular Hindu spring festival of colours is observed in India at the end of the winter season on the last full moon of the lunar month. (Photo by Noemi Cassanelli/AFP Photo)

Men ride a motorcycle in front of destroyed houses after Hurricane Matthew passes Jeremie, Haiti, October 7, 2016. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

Karima Adebibe, the newly crowned face of Lara Croft, poses, with a Burmese python on the eve of the release of the record breaking new video game “Lara Croft Tomb Raider; Legend” at The Barbican on April 6, 2006 in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Smokes rises from a fire as a Palestinian protester takes cover during clashes with Israeli troops near the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near the West Bank city of Ramallah October 9, 2015. (Photo by Mohamad Torokman/Reuters)

A Brazil fan enjoys the atmosphere prior to the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Semi Final match between Brazil and Germany at Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on Jule 8, 2014. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)