Three Chinese taikonauts returned to Beijing on Monday after a milestone mission to carry out the country's first spacewalk.

Zhai Zhigang, the one who conducted the historic spacewalk, reported to high ranking officers of China's military who greeted his team at the airport.

"Jing Haipeng, Liu Boming and I travelled on Shenzhou 7 spaceship for three days. We successfully walked in outer space and carried out experiments. We came back to our country on September 28, 2008."

The three were received by a joyful homecoming parade as hundreds of people, holding up Chinese flags and balloons, cheered and applauded as the astronauts went by.

"I'm quite happy today. The glory belongs to our country. The glory also belongs to the people."

The three taikonauts were lifted into space on Thursday at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, where the country's first two manned space missions took off in 2003 and 2005.

The team came back after a 68-hour flight, including a historic 20-minute spacewalk by Zhai Zhigang on Saturday.

Their spacecraft orbited Earth 46 times before descending in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region late on Sunday.