People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
Soong was on his second day of a bridge-building visit to China.
Soong went to pay his respects at the mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor or Huangdi, who along with the Yan Emperor, or Yandi, is regarded as one of the founding fathers of Chinese civilization.
He led a delegation that presented flowers, fruit and incense in a memorial hall, Chinese state TV showed, before addressing a small crowd gathered on the mausoleum steps.
He said that the Chinese ancestors from thousands years ago show today's Chinese people the importance of cherishing the environment and the significance of maintaining the Chinese race and culture.
"Our culture and our bloodlines all come from the same origin," Soong said. "We descendants of the Yan and Yellow Emperors cannot forget our roots. Brothers on both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait are from one family."
He mentioned "the Republic of China" three times yesterday in his comments on cross-strait relations.
Soong was scheduled to fly later yesterday to Nanjing, China's capital under the Nationalists, to visit Sun Yat-sen's (
Before heading to Beijing, he will also stop at family graves in Hunan Province, emphasizing the personal ties between Taiwan and China.
Soong is scheduled to meet with China's Vice President Zeng Qinghong (
He is scheduled to meet with Wang Daohan (汪道涵), China's top negotiator with Taiwan, in Shanghai today and deliver a speech at Beijing's Tsinghua University on Wednesday.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
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