(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-26 20:09

NANJING - Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung arrived in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, on Monday afternoon, starting the first leg of a six-day mainland visit.

Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (C) is welcomed by Chen Yunlin(R), director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, on May 26, 2008. [Xinhua]

He was received by Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, with a hug at the airport, while many businessmen from Taiwan waited with a slogan to welcome the visiting team.

At Wu's suggestion, people spent one minute lowering their heads to mourn for the deceased in the May 12 Wenchuan earthquake.

"People in Taiwan have shown deep concern over the earthquake and the affected and quickly donated money and relief materials. Here let me, on behalf of compatriots from the mainland, extend gratitude to them," Chen Yunlin said.

"Currently the mainland-Taiwan relations have entered a spring for peaceful development," he said, expressing the hope that both parties would enhance exchange and cooperation in the new circumstances.

Speaking at the airport, Wu expressed the hope that the two sides would lay aside disputes, seek consensus and shelve differences, and create a win-win situation on the basis of the 1992 Consensus.

Invited by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and General Secretary Hu Jintao, Wu will visit the three mainland cities of Nanjing, Beijing and Shanghai.

The KMT chairman would express condolences to victims of the devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province on behalf of his party and the people of Taiwan, and put forward opinions on promoting mutually beneficial cooperation across the Taiwan Straits.