But one place taikonauts cannot currently go is the International Space Station.

The US says it will not work with the Chinese space agency because it is run by the military - and it fears that sharing technology could result in a breach of America’s national security.

Wu Weiren says China is keen to collaborate and is working with Europe and the Russians on other projects. But the US remains a sticking point.

“We have urged them many times to get rid of the restrictions that would enable scientists from both countries to work together on exploration,” he says.

China’s solution for now is to build a space station of its own. A prototype space lab, Tiangong-2, will launch this year, and a larger version will follow.

It shows China’s determination to allow nothing to get in its way. And its rapid progress in space mirrors advances in so many areas of science.

In March, when the government announced its five-year plan at the National People's Congress, the word innovation was used dozens of times.

In the next phase of its development China wants to go from being a manufacturing-based economy to a knowledge-based one.

The rapid growth of China’s economy is slowing, but the government is putting research at the heart of its future plans. By 2020, the government wants its science investment to make up 2.5% of GDP.

Charlotte Liu from Springer Nature says this is encouraging.

“The government is very committed to continue to invest in science, but also to give science a very prominent role in the next decade.

“And it’s not just about the quantity of scientific output or even quality, I think there’s an even stronger emphasis on the impact of science, so how science is going to drive innovation and economic growth, and how science will solve the big societal problems and environmental problems we are faced with in the next 20 years.”

The country is clearly at a turning point.

The money has been invested, the scientists are returning, and huge experiments are about to be switched on. But there are still challenges to overcome regarding ethics, collaboration, openness and quality of research.

The world is now watching to see where this research revolution will go next - and whether China can complete its transformation into global science powerhouse.