On the other hand, perhaps rather than emulating Apollo with a huge expenditure on a seldom used and very expensive to operate giant heavy lifter, China may go to the Moon via the wild and wacky concept of maximizing use of its existing (or soon to be) rockets:
/-- China space program shoots for moon - Washington Times
/-- China To The Moon? - Transterrestrial Musings

While Constellation's mourners keep bringing up the "threat" of a Chinese lunar landing, it's a bit ironic that the architecture the Chinese may use looks far more in the style of the new exploration philosophy that with Apollo on Steroids.

This sort of article usually gets people excited for and against: China's Scary Space Ambitions: The U.S. risks losing the air superiority in Asia purchased through great sacrifice - Wall Street Journal.
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Guesses on the purpose and capabilities of the China's Tiangong spacecraft : China's Mystery Spacelab - SpaceDaily.

Here's a review of Chinese space projects planned for the next couple of years: China accelerates space research and development - Spaceflight Now - Dec.29.09.

More from Rob Coppinger on the Chinese presentations at the IAC 2009 meeting:
/-- Video: China talks manned lunar and space station missions - Hyperbola
/-- Picture Exclusive: China starts manned Moon mission planning - Flight Global

The Chinese announce that they will orbit a module in 2010 called the Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace-1", which will act as a docking target for an unmanned vehicle in 2011: China plans space station with module launch in 2010 - PhysOrg - Mar.1.09. Whether it will become part of a manned station is not stated in the announcement.

It's also reported that the Chinese lunar orbiter Chang'e 1 finished its mission by crashing into the surface: Chinese probe crashes into moon - BBC.

The latest Chinese manned mission looks to have been a solid success. Hope they now accelerate their program: Shenzhou 7 returns to Earth - spacetoday.net.

Congratulations to the Chinese on the success of the first EVA of their space program :
/-- Chinese astronaut performs first spacewalk - spacetoday.net
/-- China accomplishes its first spacewalk - Spaceflight Now

Here's the video (via Spaceports blog):


[Update: Lots more videos posted here: VIDEO: China's first spacewalk - highlights - Hyperbola.]

Rob Coppinger posts a dozen or so video reports on the Shenzhou-7 mission: VIDEO: Wall-to-wall Shenzhou-7 reports - Hyperbola
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Phil Mills sent me a note with the following graphic that he came across, which

shows Shenzhou 7 with the EVA, but in the background is another vehicle which looks like a space station module joined to a Shenzhou propulsion/service module. This is shown docking with another Shenzhou. The Chinese have announced that the Shenzhou 8 and 9 will be unmanned and will be part of a space station assembly followed by the manned Shenzhou 10. Also they announced that Shenzhou 7 was the last launch using the Chang Zheng CZ-2F launch vehicle. The CZ-5 is to be used in the future.

Phil postulates

that Shenzhou 8 will be the first launch using the new CZ-5 and will be the space station module. It will be followed by unmanned standard Shenzhou 9 which will rendezvous and dock to achieve first Chinese Docking. If the space station module has second docking port in the same way as the Russian Pirs airlock module and the Shenzhou propulsion/service module separates this will leave the second port clear for the manned Shenzhou 10. This last part is still an unknown at the moment but this plan matches the illustration.

Congratulations to China on the successful launch of Shenzhou 7 today : Liftoff! China Launches Third Manned Spaceflight - SPACE.com.

Lots more links about this at spacetoday.net.

The launch is expected to happen today : China Set to Launch Third Manned Mission - SPACE.com - Sept.24.08.

Rob Coppinger has posted several Chinese video news reports about the upcoming Shenzhou 7 launch: Hyperbola. I hope they show the launch on live TV.

Here is an explanation of the type of space station assembly the Chinese are talking about: Chinese Mini Space Station - gravityloss.
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Don't think I'll make it for the Shenzhou launch even at this reasonable rate: Watch Shenzhou 7 Launch for Only $2,200 - Media Only - Parabolic Arc

A couple of additional Chinese space program items:
/-- VIDEO: Shenzhou VII news reports from China - Hyperbola
/-- U.S., China In Space Talks - Aviation Week

"China will launch its third manned space mission in late September, state-run news agency Xinhua reports." China sets dates for space launch - BBC

A HS reader pointed me to an impressive collection of materials posted recently by Mark Wade at Astronautix on various Chinese partial and fully reusable space transport designs, mostly from studies carried out in the late 1980s.
* Tian Jiao 1 - vertical takeoff/horizontal landing spaceplane, launched on top of expendable booster.
* Chang Cheng 1 - vertical takeoff/horizontal landing spaceplane, launched on top of expendable booster.
* V-2 VTOHL - vertical takeoff/horizontal landing spaceplane, launched piggyback on a flyback booster.
* H-2 HTOHL - horizontal takeoff/horizontal landing spaceplane, launched piggyback on an airbreathing first stage aircraft.

He also posts information on the Shenshou 6 plus an interesting review of plans for a manned program in the late 1960s, early 1970s period based on using a capsule called the Shuguang 1.