Hawking inspired Chinese youngsters

Among the tens of millions of messages posted online for British physicist Stephen Hawking, who died on Wednesday, the one most "liked" is: "The person who knows the most about stars has flown to the stars."

It is also the most retweeted message on domestic social media.

Many people have expressed their respect for and condoled the death of arguably the most important theoretical physicist since Albert Einstein. And media outlets have published his obituary and innumerable reports on his achievements.