Chang’e-1, China’s first lunar probe, blasted off on a Long March 3A carrier rocket from the No. 3 launching tower in the Xichang Satellite Launch Center of southwestern Sichuan Province on Wednesday, October 24, 2007. Along with the satellite, 30 classical Chinese songs and music pieces are also sent to space. These songs include 谁不说俺家乡好 My Lovely Hometown (Shui Bu Shuo An Jia Xiang Hao), 二泉映月 Moonlight over Erquan Springs, 黄河颂 Ode to the Yellow River, 梁祝 The Butterfly Lovers, etc, the Shanghai Evening Post reported.

These songs and music pieces will be played by Chang’e No. 1 after the satellite reaches its destined orbit, which is 380,000 kilometers away from the earth. By then, Chinese people can hear these songs sent via satellite transmission for the first time in radio, TV or online.

The 30 songs and music pieces are selected through a nationwide public vote. In July 2006, secretary general of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND) Huang Qiang, who is also COSTIND’s spokesperson, announced COSTIND’s decision that Chang’e No. 1 satellite will carry 30 songs and music pieces into space for its launch, and people across the country could select their favorites and recommend them to COSTIND during a nationwide campaign for the selection.

At that time, COSTIND’s Moon Exploration Engineering Center recommended more than 150 songs and music pieces as candidates. They included 国歌China’s national anthem, Peking opera 贵妃醉酒 Drunken Beauty, a piece of Huangmei opera, traditional Chinese song 彩云追月 Colorful Clouds Chasing the Moon and pop song 祝你平安 Wish You Everything Good (Zhu Ni Ping An), etc.

With three rounds of selections, the organizer of the event then publicized their criteria on how a candidate song could be selected - that the theme of the song should be related with one’s love for the motherland, the Yellow River, Yangtze River, the moon, or the national cultural heritage included in the first batch of UN cultural heritage list; the song could also be classical Chinese songs, traditional opera arias, or children’s songs; these songs should also reflect overseas Chinese people’s love for their motherland. With these criteria, some 30 songs and music pieces were finally selected. Apart from traditional songs like 谁不说俺家乡好 My Lovely Hometown (Shui Bu Shuo An Jia Xiang Hao), 二泉映月 Moonlight over Erquan Springs, there are also some songs produced in recent years, including 爱我中华 Loving for My China (Ai Wo Zhong Hua), 歌唱祖国 Singing for Our Motherland (Ge Chang Zu Guo), etc. In addition to these 30, the song 义勇军进行曲 March of the Volunteers and 东方红 The East is Red (Dong Fang Hong) were also selected. The former song is China’s national anthem and the latter was once played on China’s first manmade satellite DFH-1. The two songs have been selected because of their special historical significance.

China started its space programme in the 1960s. In 2003, it became only the third country, after the United States and the former Soviet Union, to put a man into space. It sent two men into orbit in 2005 and plans a space walk in 2008.

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The thirty songs are:

1、《谁不说俺家乡好》(Everyone Loves My Hometown)
2、《爱我中华》(Love for My China)
3、《歌唱祖国》(Ode to the Motherland)
4、《梁山伯与祝英台》(The Butterfly Lovers)
5、《我的祖国》(My Motherland)
6、《走进新时代》(Enter the New Era)
7、《二泉映月》(The Moon Reflected on the Er-quan Spring)
8、《黄河颂》(The Ode to the Yellow River)
9、《青藏高原》(Qinghai-Tibet Plateau)
10、《长江之歌》(The Song of the Yangtze River)
11、《在希望的田野上》(Fields of Hope)
12、《春天的故事》(Story of Spring)
13、《七子之歌》(The Song of Macau)
14、《我的中国心》(My Chinese Heart)
15、《高山流水》(High Mountains and Flowing Water)
16、《草原上升起不落的太阳》(The Unsetting Sun Over the Prairie)
17、《阿里山姑娘》(Mount Ali Girl)
18、《贵妃醉酒》选段 (Drunken Empress Yang Kwei-fei)
19、《难忘今宵》(The Night to Remember)
20、《歌声与微笑》(Song and Smile)
21、《春节序曲》(Prelude to the Spring Festival)
22、《半个月亮爬上来》(A Half-Moon Rises)
23、《游园惊梦》选段 (Sweet Dream in the Garden (excerpt) )
24、《富饶辽阔的阿拉善》(The Rich and Vast Land of Alashan)
25、《良宵》(Happy Night)
26、《十二木卡姆选曲》(Twelve Uygur Mukam Suite)
27、《东方之珠》(Oriental Pearl)
28、《在那遥远的地方》(In the Far-and-Away Place)
29、《我是中国人》(I am Chinese)
30、《但愿人长久》(Wish You a Long Life)

(Specially chosen numbers )：
1、《国歌》(The national anthem of the PRC)
2、《东方红》(The Ode to Chairman Mao)