Lien Chan, chairman of the Kuomingtang Party of China, and his wife wave in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province yesterday, on their arrival from Taiwan. This is the first time the chairman of the KMT has set foot on the mainland in more than half a century. (Photo: Xinhua)

Lien Chan, chairman of the Kuomintang Party of China, arrived in Nanjing yesterday afternoon for the first visit to the mainland by the top leader of the party since it lost a civil war and fled to Taiwan in 1949.
"This visit has been too late, but we finally took the first historic step," said the 68-year-old Lien upon his arrival.
Heading a 60-member delegation, Lien called his visit "a journey of peace."
The visit assumes significance as tensions have been escalating across the Taiwan Strait in recent years due to the island's leaders continuously pushing for its secession from China.
Lien and his delegation received a red carpet welcome and were greeted by Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and local officials when they landed in Nanjing around 4:40pm.
A crowd of several hundred people cheered and applauded when a smiling and hand-waving Lien emerged from his plane.
"Nanjing is not far away from Taipei in distance, but it has taken more than 60 years for me to revisit this city," said Lien in a brief speech at the airport.
Lien said Nanjing is a place with "historical and emotional links " to the KMT, or the Chinese nationalist party.
Now capital of the coastal province of Jiangsu, Nanjing was once China's national capital when the country was under KMT rule between the 1920s and 1940s. The city also houses the mausoleum of Dr Sun Yat-sen, founder of the KMT party.
"Paying the highest tribute to Mr Sun is the common aspiration and expectation of all members of my delegation. This trip is truly valuable," said Lien.
He said building a "win-win future of mutual benefit and peace" across the strait is "the common concern of us all" and "we're ready to do all we can for peace and stability across the strait."
Lien, accompanied by his wife Lien Fang-yu, came to the mainland at the invitation of the CPC Central Committee and its General Secretary Hu Jintao. During his eight-day visit, Lien will also tour Beijing, Shanghai and his birthplace Xi'an.
Lien's visit has also set the stage for the first meeting in 60 years between the top leaders of the CPC and KMT, as he is expected to meet Hu in Beijing on Friday.
The last such rendezvous took place in August 1945, when then party leaders Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-Shek met in southwest China's Chongqing City to try to negotiate a way to avoid a civil war.
Lien's visit, which was arranged shortly after China's top legislature, the National People's Congress, enacted an anti-secession law aimed at checking and preventing "Taiwan independence" in March was blasted by the Taiwan authorities and diehard secessionists on the island as a so-called "act of selling out Taiwan."
Some of the secessionists even staged violent protests at the Taoyuan Airport in Taipei yesterday morning, when Lien and his delegation were embarking on their journey.
Nevertheless, the visit has found supporters on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. About 96 percent of mainland respondents in a telephone poll welcomed Lien's arrival, while a survey in Taiwan found 40 percent of the island's residents support Lien's trip.
Last night, Li Yuanchao, secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the CPC, hosted a banquet for Lien and his delegation.
Speaking highly of Taiwan business people's contribution to Jiangsu's social and economic development, Li said Jiangsu was one of the mainland regions that had developed the closest relationship with Taiwan.