Nanjing residents offer warm welcome
By Bao Xinyan (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-05-09 06:18

NANJING: James Soong, chairman of the People First Party, and his delegation were warmly welcomed by locals from all walks of life when he arrived in Nanjing on Friday, 12 days after the visit of Kuomintang (KMT) Party Chairman Lien Chan.

Soong toured Dr Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum and Confucius Temple, and met with Li Yuanchao, secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, before leaving for Shanghai on Saturday.

Soong spent a few years of his childhood in the capital of Jiangsu Province.

The PFP chairman lived with his father Soong Ta, who served in the KMT armed forces, in Nanjing between 1945 and 1948. His family left the mainland for Taiwan in 1949 after the KMT was defeated by the Communist Party of China (CPC) in a civil war.

And just like they did with Lien, the residents of Nanjing closely followed the visit of the PFP chairman.

Conversations about Soong's visit could be heard on buses, in the streets and in homes and offices.

"Cross-Straits exchanges will create more business opportunities for the Chinese mainland and Taiwan," said Wang Yi, a 27-year-old man who was drinking tea with some friends.

"I have heard that there are many fruits in Taiwan which are rare here. Maybe in the near future, we will have much more of them and other goods," said Zhou Mi, one of Wang's friends. "I have dreamt of visiting the island some day."

"Lien and Soong's visits have given us the confidence to invest in Nanjing," said Chen Wu-shyon, head of the Nanjing Taiwan Business Association, when greeting Soong's delegation at Nanjing Lukou International Airport. "We will bring more Taiwan businessmen here."

"I can understand people's feelings, and why they are so concerned," said Chen Yu, a 37-year-old taxi driver who listens attentively to the news every day at work.

"Although I had no time to see James Soong, his wife and his delegation with my own eyes when they were in Nanjing, I got all the news from the radio and my friends," he said.

"All of us long for the reunification of both sides of the Straits," he added.

(China Daily 05/09/2005 page2)

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