(Bloomberg) -- A Chinese spacecraft has lifted off from the far side of the moon but not before marking the historic visit with a bit of patriotic graffiti.

Chang’e-6, the first sample-retrieval mission to the far side of the moon, blasted off on its journey back to Earth Tuesday after leaving a mark on the lunar surface that resembled the Chinese character ‘Zhong,’ state media reported. 

Zhong is the first part of Zhongguo, the Chinese-language name for China. It can also mean center in Chinese.

“There is a Chinese character on the back of the moon,” broadcaster CCTV posted on Weibo, the popular Chinese social media site. “After collecting samples, the moon’s surface now shows a ‘Zhong’ character.”

For people who don’t read Chinese, the shape might seem more like a plus sign, but that didn’t deter many social media users in China from expressing pride in the country leaving its mark on the moon. 

The moon mark was one of the top trending items on Weibo on Tuesday.

“The first human character appeared on the moon: It’s the ‘Zhong’ in Zhongguo,” wrote one fan.

Read More: Why Everyone is Heading Back to the Moon

China isn’t the first country to leave its mark on the lunar surface.

During their trips to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s, US astronauts left everything from equipment and trash to American flags and a photo of astronaut Charles Duke’s family.

Alan Shepard, the first American in space when he flew on a Mercury spacecraft in 1961, left two golf balls that he hit with a six-iron during the Apollo 14 mission in 1971.

The last Apollo astronaut on the moon, Gene Cernan, in December 1972 “left his daughter’s initials behind in the lunar dust,” according to Space Center Houston, the official visitor center for NASA’s Johnson Space Center and an affiliate of the Smithsonian. 

(Updated first three paragraphs and added photo.)

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