Three taikonauts, a Chinese term for "astronaut", were awarded 800,000 yuan (117,000 U.S. dollars) each on Wednesday by the Tsang Hin Chi Manned Space Foundation in Hong Kong.

The foundation issued the Special Contribution Awards to taikonauts Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming, and Jing Haipeng.

In 2003, Tsang, a business leader in Hong Kong, donated 100 million HK dollars (13 million U.S. dollars) to set up the foundation to honor people who made outstanding contributions to China's manned space program.

The first Special Contribution Award went to Yang Liwei, China's first taikonaut in space, in 2004.

Last year, the foundation awarded 15 million yuan to Chinese taikonauts, scientists and officials who had participated in the country's manned space program.

Tsang, who was born in 1934, is the founder and board chairman of the Goldlion Holdings Ltd. business group in Hong Kong.

He has donated more than 580 million HK dollars to fund various projects in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong.

In 1993, the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered an asteroid. The star, numbered 3388, was named "Tsang Hin Chi".

(Xinhua News Agency January 15, 2009)