Visiting Chairman James CY Soong of the People First Party (PFP) in Taiwan and his entourage left Changsha at around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday for Beijing, the last leg of their nine-day mainland tour.

In this capital of central China's Hunan Province, Soong's native town, Soong and his PFP delegation spent 46 "unforgettable hours" and received warm welcome from local officials and Soong's town fellows.

On Monday, Soong paid homage to his ancestors' tombs in Juyu Village of Xiangtan. Then, Soong went to his alma mater, the Shuguang Primary School, where he made donations and left an inscription to express his appreciation of the school he stayed in 1949 as a second-grader. He also met his relatives living on the mainland.

On Tuesday morning, Soong and his delegation toured the Yuelu Academy, one of the oldest higher educational institutions of China in Changsha.

In a brief speech at the academy, Soong said no one could block the trend of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. He pledged to join the people in Taiwan in their concerted efforts with the people on the mainland to reach the goal.

Touched by the crowd standing outside, rain or shine, to welcome him over the past two days, Soong said that his appreciation was "beyond description." More than once, the 63-year-old spoke in local dialect to express his affinity toward the special land.

"I'm a native of Hunan being nurtured by Hunan rice and water from the Xiangjiang River. I also love the landscape and the people in Taiwan. But I am a staunch believer that I am a real Chinese," he said.

In response to Soong's passionate speeches delivered during his stay in Hunan, local Hunanese worded their sentimental attachment to the visiting PFP chairman and people in Taiwan in varied forms.

"We look forward to Chairman Soong's revisit to Hunan and sincerely hope that he can stay here for a longer period of time on the second trip," said Xia Kangsheng, vice secretary of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), while seeing off the PFP delegation at the airport here on Tuesday.

Soong's Hunan-based cousin Liu Manjun, who wept at the meeting with Soong on Monday, said people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to the same big family and more family reunions should be arranged as the cross-Straits ties get ever closer.

A commentary published on a local newspaper hailed the success of Soong's visit to Hunan and said "the mainland compatriots will demonstrate the utmost goodwill and open their arms to the Taiwan compatriots, and contribute to improving cross-Straits relations".

Soong started his mainland tour last Thursday and has already visited the cities of Xi'an, Nanjing, Shanghai and Changsha.

After the delegation's arrival in Beijing, Soong is scheduled to deliver a speech in Qinghua University and meet General Secretary Hu Jintao of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.