Lights, camera, takeoff!

"After I took the pictures, I immediately rushed back to my room to check and edit my photos, as did the other photographers at Gloria Longda. Nobody went to bed after the launch. Not only were we too excited to sleep but also each of us wanted to be the first to publish pictures about this historic mission."

Zhang says she posted six photos on her Weibo micro blog account and instantly got more than 7,000 reposts.

About 70 photographers she knows, mostly freelancers and amateurs, were spread out across the rooftops of Longlou to record the landmark Chang'e 5 mission.

The freelancer says she usually publishes some of her rocket-related pictures on her social media accounts after each mission to entertain her friends and more than 1 million fans, adding that she also provides such photos to domestic news outlets for free.

"The media doesn't need to pay me for my rocket photos because I am happy to share them with as many people as possible. The rockets I photograph belong to my motherland and are part of the space programs that keep bringing us, the Chinese people, glory and honor," she explains.

"If my photos can be seen by more people through the media and make the audience feel proud of our nation and its space industry, I'd feel satisfied."

There are at most 100-odd photographers in China who regularly take pictures of space missions, Zhang says.

She says that shooting rocket launches isn't easy for photographers, especially amateurs.

"There are some difficulties for amateur photographers like me, who don't have an official invitation from space authorities," she explains.

"For instance, some of my friends can't find a good position in Longlou that has clear view of the rocket because not every hotel in the town has an 'acceptable' rooftop. So, they have to use rooftops of residential buildings, even unfinished structures. But local police sometimes force them to leave these places because of what they consider safety concerns."

Zhang's friend Wang says most Chinese photographers he knows chose the Wenchang center to make their first attempt to shoot a spaceflight because that facility and Longlou township, despite some restrictions, are still more open and friendlier to visitors.

"The other three launch centers, as far as I know, are very hard for photographers to enter unless you are hired by a media organization," he says.