Tens of thousands of stargazers across China watched the Leonid meteor storm early Monday morning.

In Beijing, a crowd gathered in open ground near Yanqi Lake in the suburban Huairou County, joyfully cheering when passing meteors lit up the sky around 00:40 hours Monday.

Zhang Xuekui, deputy head of the Beijing Planetarium, explained that as the first quarter moon set in the latter half of the night, there was less disturbance from a strong moonlight, so stargazers could clearly watch the meteor storm.

Beijing Planetarium organized tens of thousands of stargazers to watch the meteor storm from places including Yanqi Lake and the Great Wall.

The Leonid meteor storm, which occurs every 33 years, was the first to be seen in China this century.

Li Guangyu, a research fellow who watched the meteor storm from the Xuyi Station at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Purple Mountain Observatory in east China's Jiangsu Province, reported that a strong Leonid meteor storm was observed around 01:30 hours Monday morning, with the biggest number of passing meteors being
estimated at over 10,000 per hour.

"In the early stage of the storm, the majority were bolides -- the brightest meteors which outstrip the even brightness of a full moon," said Li, "but after 02:30 hours, dark meteors began to increase and gradually becoming dominant."
The Leonid meteor storm last until 05:00 hours.

Xu Pinxin, a Chinese meteor rain specialist, watched the Leonid meteor storm for more than two hours this morning from the Purple Mountain Observatory based in Nanjing City, capital of Jiangsu.

"Observations confirmed astronomical scientists' forecasts about the time and the intensity of the Leonid meteor," said Xu, declaring accurate forecasting the major breakthrough in astronomical research.

According to Xu, four meteor storms occurred in the 20th century, but were not seen in China. Xu believes that
successfully observing Leonid meteor storms from China would be of significance in promoting astronomical research in the country and for popularizing knowledge of meteor storms.