A delegation composed of village heads from Taichung's Fengyuan district and Shigang district paid a visit to Pingtan, Fujian province from Dec 28 to Dec 29.

The delegation carried on a field trip to places including the Aoqian roll-on/roll-off passenger ship wharf, the Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone Planning Pavilion and Taiwan Innovation Park.

Taiwan Innovation Park, a national business incubator in Pingtan,Fujian province [Photo  provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Afterwards, they also attended a symposium with their counterparts from Pingtan's Guocai village and Shanglou village to explore aspects of village planning and community management.

Both sides expressed their wishes to conduct exchange activities on a regular basis, jointly promoting the economic cooperation and cultural exchanges between Pingtan and Taiwan.

Zhang Hongbin, a Taiwan village head representative, said that he felt very glad to visit Pingtan and amazed at the city's development speed. He also called on all the Taiwan village heads present to publicize Pingtan's latest developments and promote more Taiwan residents to invest in the city.

In July 2016, the Pingtan government organized an investigation group composed of officials for a grass-roots visit of Taiwan during which four pairs of villages from Pingtan and Taiwan signed cooperation contracts and pledged to further strengthen the cross-Straits communication and exchanges at a grass-roots level.