Crew members of the Shenzhou XIII mission return to Earth

"It is the power and strength of our country that built the high-flying space station. I am proud of my great motherland," he said.

Wang, the first Chinese woman to live in the Tiangong station and also the first female Chinese spacewalker, told the State broadcaster that she is very happy to return to the motherland and wants to tell her little daughter that "mom has returned after reaching for the stars".

Carrying the mission crew, the Shenzhou XIII spacecraft undocked from the Tiangong station at 12:44 am on Saturday.

In the last hours of their stay inside the Tiangong, the astronauts worked with ground controllers to configure the station, transmit some experimental data back to Earth and sort out materials, according to the agency.

Zhai and his crewmates spent 183 days in an orbit about 400 kilometers above the Earth since their Shenzhou XIII spacecraft was launched on Oct 16 by a Long March 2F carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. They were the second inhabitants of China's permanent space station named Tiangong, also known as Heavenly Palace.