Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived in Beijing on Sunday, continuing a four-day official visit to China that began in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province.
The trip comes less than a month after Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari visited China.
During his stay in Beijing, Sharif is expected to meet separately with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang to discuss bilateral ties and other issues of mutual interest.
On Saturday, the prime minister attended a business meeting in Hangzhou focusing on information technology and battery energy storage. He also visited the headquarters of Chinese tech giant Alibaba.
Pakistani PM arrives in Beijing, continuing his official visit to China
The three astronauts of the Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceflight mission have boarded the spacecraft for a flight to China’s Tiangong space station.
The Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship is scheduled to blast off at 23:08 Beijing Time (15:08 GMT) from northwest China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
The three Chinese astronauts, commander Zhu Yangzhu, spacecraft pilot Zhang Zhiyuan and payload specialist Lai Ka-ying, climbed aboard the spaceship with the help of technicians.
Following the launch, the astronauts will complete an in-orbit rotation with the outgoing Shenzhou-21 crew, and one of them will conduct a one-year in-orbit stay, double the usual duration of previous Shenzhou missions.
Notably, astronaut Lai Ka-ying is also the first astronaut from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Shenzhou-23 marks the 40th flight of China's manned spaceflight program, and the seventh manned flight mission since the Tiangong space station entered its application and development phase in late 2022.
Shenzhou-23 astronauts board spaceship ahead of launch
Shenzhou-23 astronauts board spaceship ahead of launch
