Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kung of Taiwan's Kuomintang party and his 34-member delegation arrived in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, yesterday.
Chiang planned to visit the tomb of Kuomintang founder Dr Sun Yat-sen, who led the movement that ended imperial rule in 1911.
Chiang met the Communist Party secretary of Jiangsu Province, Li Yuanchao, and thanked him for helping Taiwanese who have invested more than US$20 billion in the region.
Li praised the visit as commemorating Sun's "great quest for unification, democracy and prosperity."
The visit "is an important move keeping in view the common interests of people on either side (of the Taiwan Strait) and pushing forward exchanges and cooperation," Li said.
Earlier yesterday, in the southern city of Guangzhou, Chiang visited a shrine to 72 activists who died in overthrowing China's last imperial dynasty more than 90 years ago.
He laid a wreath and bowed before the monument.
"Although the two sides are currently in a political standoff, we love freedom and peace. We appreciate economic development," Chiang said.
"We can enjoy this situation because the sacrifices of these martyrs eventually led to a good result."
Locals in Guangdong Province responded passionately to the first official visit of the Kuomintang to the Chinese mainland in more than 50 years.
Huanghuagang, "the sepulcher for martyrs," remained open to the public despite the scheduled visit.
Numerous local residents congregated there.
More than 100 Taiwanese entrepreneur representatives in the mainland waved streamers to welcome the delegation.
Huang Jiajin, 85, who lived through the civil war between the KMT and the Communist Party of China in the late 1940s, said the KMT members should visit the mainland at every turn as they are compatriots.
Zhang Hanwen, president of the Taiwan-invested Enterprises Association in Dongguan, said the entrepreneurs want to see peaceful discussions about the differences between the two sides.
Zhou Tianhong, head of the Guangdong Provincial Revolutionary Committee of the KMT, said the delegation's homage to Huanghuagang marked a common understanding in the spirit of Dr Sun Yat-sen.
"The spirit didn't fade away but imposes an influence on the Chinese across the Taiwan Strait, even all over the world," said Zhou.
He hoped the KMT visit will help Taiwanese learn more about the mainland as well as its goodwill to peaceful reunification of the country.
Taiwanese have spent US$100 billion investing on the mainland in recent years.
The five-day trip, which began on Monday in Guangzhou, also includes a stop in Beijing.