Chiang Pin-kung (2nd R), vice chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT), meets with representatives of businessmen from southeast China's Taiwan Province, upon his arrival at Capital International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, March 30, 2005. (Photo: Xinhua)

A visiting delegation of the Kuomintang (KMT) from Taiwan arrived in Beijing Wednesday afternoon on the final leg of its first official tour of the Chinese mainland in 56 years since 1949.

"Whenever you drink water, you should not forget its source," Chiang Pin-kung, KMT vice president and leader of the 34-member delegation, upon arrival at the Capital Airport in Beijing.

The delegation will pay homage to the cenotaph of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the KMT founder and a pioneer of the Chinese Democratic Revolution, in Beijing. They will also meet with relevant mainlanddepartments for an exchange of views on cross-Strait trade and economic ties.

The delegation was met by ranking mainland officials, includingdeputy director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Li Bingcai, deputy secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee Long Xinmin and representatives of Taiwanese business people in the national capital.

"What the people want is precisely to live and work in peace and contentment and satisfactory jobs. They do not want to see tension across the Taiwan Straits," acknowledged Chiang. "Through cross-Strait economic and trade exchanges, the tension can be eased and the crisis dissolved or mitigated."

"That's what people on both sides of the Straits want to see," he said.

The delegation arrived in the southern city of Guangzhou on theChinese mainland Monday to start its tour of the mainland. It has since visited "Huanghuagang" martyrs' cemetery in Guangzhou, whereburied 72 martyrs who laid down their lives in a revolution led byDr. Sun to overthrow the imperial Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), China's last dynasty, and Dr. Sun Yat-sen's imposing mausoleum in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province.

The delegation members also heard views and suggestions of Taiwanese business people in both cities during their meetings.

The year 2005 is the 80th anniversary of the death of Dr. Sun Yat-sen and the 94th anniversary of the Huanghuagang Uprising in Guangzhou.

The five decades division across the Taiwan Straits is ascribedto the outcome of the civil war between the KMT and the Communist Party of China (CPC) in late 1940s, Chiang said in Taipei prior tohis trip to the mainland.

The cross-straits tension in recent five years has "affected the economy of Taiwan," Chiang said, adding he believed that antagonism between the two sides must be halted and it should giveway to reconciliation.