Previous landings, including one by China's Chang'e 3 in 2013, have been on the near side.
Researchers hope that low-frequency observations of the cosmos from the far side, where radio signals from Earth are blocked by the moon, will help scientists learn more about the early days of the solar system and even the birth of the universe's first stars.
Still, China's successful landing of the Change-e 4 on lunar terrain last Thursday was a significant scientific and technological achievement-one that can't be dismissed as just another example of Chinese copy-catting. Spacecraft have taken pictures of the moon's far side before - a Soviet satellite took the first photographs of the far side in 1959, and the Apollo missions circled above it between 1968 and 1972 - but no lander has ever landed there.
"A small step for the robotic vehicle, a giant leap for the Chinese nation", said the chief designer of the vehicle, Wu Wiren, paraphrasing the words of the American astronaut, Neil Armstrong, the first man to have been on the moon about 50 years ago. That side has been observed many times from lunar orbit, but never up close.
The first photos from the landing, shared by the China National Space Administration on Thursday, show the first close-ups of the far side of the moon's cratered surface.
China's mission is to learn more about the little-understood region of the moon and compete with the United States and Russian Federation as a powerhouse of space exploration. "Probably after some years ordinary people like us can also travel up there to take a look", he said. It can climb a 20-degree hill or an obstacle up to 20 centimeters (8 inches) tall.
"The surface is soft and it is similar that you are walking on the snow", Shen Zhenrong, the rover designer from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said on CCTV.
The far side is often referred to as the "dark side" because it can not be seen from Earth and is relatively unknown.