China has launched a rover to Mars in a journey coinciding with a similar United States mission as the powers take their rivalry into deep space.

The two countries are taking advantage of a period when Earth and Mars are favourably aligned for a short journey, with the US spacecraft due to lift off on July 30.

Engineers and other employees cheered at the launch site on the southern island of Hainan as it lifted off into blue sky.

China has made huge strides in the past decade, sending a human into space in 2003.

China has upgraded its monitoring stations in the far-western Xinjiang region and northeastern