The last mission carried all the equipment necessary for manned flight and tested life-support systems.
It carried two astronauts this time, one more than China's first manned flight in 2003.
Officials say the manned flight will take place during the daytime to aid the tracking of the capsule.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | China manned space mission nears
To date, China has so far launched four unmanned space missions to test the hardware for the manned flight.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | China manned space mission nears
After a series of unmanned flights, Musk expects that the first manned flight should head towards the ISS within 3 years.
After the Shenzhou 4 flight, Chinese media said the capsule carried all the equipment necessary for manned flight and tested life-support equipment.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | China manned space mission nears
He declined to say whether this would be the last manned flight to Mir, which has been in space orbit for 13 years.
That trip usually takes about two days, but after tests with three previous cargo vessels, the trip was made for the first time with a manned flight and set a new record.
FORBES: How Astronauts Got From Kazakhstan To The Space Station In Six Hours
So Russia has since turned its focus on China, which made its first successful manned flight in 2003 aboard the Shenzhou spacecraft and plans to put a capsule on the moon in 2013.
Yet with careful rationing of its stored energy, it should be possible to achieve the closest thing yet to perpetual manned flight with man being the limiting factor because of the need to carry food and drink, and to remain awake for long periods.
The failure last week of an unmanned freighter to the ISS has left the Russians questioning the reliability of their usually ultra-reliable Soyuz fleet, and the planned manned flight to the station on 22 September has now been postponed as a consequence.
This is particularly true in regard to design control over manned mission flight safety provisions.
For the past two years, Russia has asked NASA to help with a manned space flight to Mars.
But to give up manned space flight entirely would be a mistake.
China this morning successfully launched its second manned space flight.
President Obama appointed the Augustine committee in May to gather information from space agency officials, scientists, the aerospace industry and from Congress about the best future course for US manned space flight.
President Obama declined to keep the shuttles going, canceled the planned replacement platform for manned space flight and thereby condemned this country for the foreseeable future to reliance on Russian and perhaps, in due course, Chinese rockets to deliver our astronauts to the space station.
"What we're asking (SpaceX officials) to do is amazing, " William Gerstenmaier, head of NASA's manned space-flight efforts, told reporters recently.
Despite the warm words of the nation's leaders, America's manned space-flight programme has been becalmed in Earth orbit for decades.
Joe Engle, who commanded one of two flight crews that manned the Enterprise during test flights in 1977.
They cannot perform the kinds of maneuvers typical of manned tactical aircraft, and their flight routes are usually planned carefully with an eye to local weather conditions.
It completed the first commercial flight in October and is vying for a contract for manned flights into orbit alongside Boeing and Sierra Nevada.
And if the crew assigned to man the deep-space mission travels up separately to the station, it would also mean all the elements for their long-duration flight could be launched without the complications of ultra-safe abort systems that complicate manned rockets.
But still, accepting that space flight is very risky, do you think that NASA has become maybe too risk averse for effective manned space exploration?
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