"Welcome home, Mr. Lien!" is the message that has come up repeatedly over the past three days on the website of the People's Daily, a leading Chinese newspaper.

Internet browsers on the Chinese mainland have left more than 3,000 messages on the site's bulletin board system (BBS), opened on April 22 to solicit messages to Lien Chan, chairman of Taiwan's Kuomintang, or the Nationalist Party, who is arriving Tuesday for a visit to the mainland.

The messages are passionate and friendly and voice hope that the epoch-making trip will bring about more concrete exchanges across the Taiwan Strait.

"My eyes moistened when I heard about Mr. Lien's visit. It's exciting -- like a close relative whom we haven't met for decades is coming at long last," said a man from Dalian, a port city in northeast China's Liaoning Province, who gave his name as Yue Zongguan. "I hope Mr. Lien will enjoy the tour."

"When will Taiwan, the eldest brother, be reunited with the Chinese mainland?" said an anonymous poster who referred to Hong Kong and Macao as the second and third brothers.

"A step taken today will form the basis for a great stride tomorrow," said a poster nicknamed Lightning at Wind's Heel. "

Blood is thicker than water. The Chinese people have to be united amongst ourselves in order to rejuvenate the nation."

The majority of the Chinese posters say they are most attentive to Lien's upcoming meeting with President Hu Jintao -- the first between leaders of the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang in six decades -- and whether the visit will promote concrete exchanges across the Strait, accounting for 79 percent and 61 percent respectively of the respondents to an on-line poll conducted by Xinhua.

The official website of Xinhua News Agency started the poll Tuesday morning, asking "which part of Lien's visit do you find most intriguing".

About 40 percent of those responded say they are particularly interested in what Lien is going to say in a speech he'll be giving at Beijing University on Friday. The university is the alma mater of Lien's mother, according to a report by Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po.

A survey released Monday by the Social Survey Institute of China said 96 percent of the mainland respondents "welcome and appreciate" Lien's visit.

The former governmental institution had interviewed 1,000 Chinese mainland residents in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Xi'an and other major cities by telephone seeking public opinions about Lien's tour and the upcoming visit of James C.Y. Soong, chairman of the People First Party.

Lien is leading a KMT delegation to visit Nanjing, Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai from April 26 to May 3 at the invitation of Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

The news of Lien's visit has spread throughout the four cities, which are working all out to offer the best services to the guests from across the Strait.

Nanjing, the capital of the KMT-ruled Chinese government before 1949, has bedecked the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum with azaleas, pines and cypresses. Lien and his delegation will visit the mausoleum of the KMT's founding father on Wednesday.

"Mr. Lien's visit to the mainland is long overdue," a gardener at the mausoleum said. "The Taiwan compatriots should come to visit the mainland more often, and I hope that more mainland residents will have the chance to visit Taiwan, too."

Imposing Jinling Hotel, which will accommodate Lien's delegation, studied Lien's eating habits before preparing his menus, said a hotel manageress who gave her surname as Xue.

"We've prepared the best Chinese tea, traditional Beijing snacks and art performances -- including Peking Opera -- to treat the guests," said a waiter at Laoshe Tea House near Tian'anmen Square. The group will visit the Beijing-style teahouse upon arrival at the national capital on Thursday.

In Xi'an, where Lien was born in 1936, he's scheduled to visit his elementary school and pay his respects to his grandmother's grave. "Can we pose for a picture with him?" asked a girl at Houzaimen Primary School in Xi'an, where Lien studied as a child.

And at his final stop in Shanghai, China's financial hub and a magnet for Taiwanese investment, Lien is scheduled to speak to Taiwan business people, a source with a local federation for Taiwan-invested businesses told Xinhua.

Source: Xinhua