From April 26 to May 3 this year, Lien Chan, chairman of Taiwan-based Chinese Kuomintang Party (KMT), led a delegation to visit the Chinese mainland, his wife Lien Fangyu has written the book "Half-a-Century Meeting" on her experience and recollection of this visit. On the eve of the publication of this book, the couple, Lien Chan and his wife, recalled this historic visit and respectively wrote about their complicated feelings as they set foot on the soil of the mainland. On August 2, Taiwan "United Daily published these together on its "supplement". Full text of Lien's article is hereby published to feast our readers.

This year, I have finally for the first time set foot on the land on the other side of the Straits.

That is not only my personal experience in my lifetime just as "a swan's footprints left on snow and mud", it also marks the trace of the forward march of our times. Before departure, some people cheered me, some held different views, that became the focus of public opinion for a while. Although my visit may be given thousands of interpretations, I have a clear mind and pure thoughts about it. I merely want to do my bit for peace and for people on both sides of the Straits. I am not writing history for myself, I am holding myself responsible to history, I firmly believe that a correct evaluation will be given by history on the journey of peace made by the KMT delegation I led to the Chinese mainland!

Traveling from south to north and west to east over the past 40 years since the marriage between me and my wife, I don't know how many countries we have visited, we have experienced numerous sceneries and human and natural landscapes, but had never had an opportunity to step on the land of the other side of the Straits. Before I laid down party and government work, I was finally able to lead my family to go personally to Xi'an, where I worshipped and paid respect to the tomb of my ancestral grandmother. Despite our late coming, we have fulfilled the long-cherished wish of the descendants of the Lien family, which is an expression of the good will of the descendants. I believe the five-point statement on common promotion, reached between me and Mr. Hu Jintao, leader of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), in particular, will have far-reaching and irreplaceable impact on future development of cross-Strait relations.

Seemingly familiar scenery, fresh and amazing feelings

My native place is Tainan, Taiwan Province, but I was born in Xi'an. My father was a Taiwanese and my mother was a northeasterner. My parents knew each other in Beiping on the eve of the anti-Japanese war, after marriage they gave birth to me, a single son, my name was given in advance by my grandfather Mr. Ya Tang. That's why I say the history of my growth is actually a small epitome of the general modern history of China.

The mainland visit this time happened to be the 60th anniversary of the victory of the anti-Japanese war. I haven't gone back to my birthplace for 60 full years, therefore, before I set out for this first mainland visit, I had mixing feelings, and I felt the visit was of serious significance. But when I had really set foot on the land of the other side of the Strait, I found many, many sceneries were fresh, curious and even surprising to me. I had never returned to my birthplace for 60 years, but my wife went to Shanghai twice in one month, this opportunity is wonderful indeed.

The sceneries I saw during my first mainland visit seemed to be familiar to me. Despite the long separation in terms of time and space, in my reading of books and talks with old friends, all these seem as if I had paid many visits there. When I returned to the place where I was born and grew up, the strange fellow villagers accorded me warm welcome, besides mixed feeling of surprise and joy and the uttering of deep sigh, I still had some doubtful, dream-like sentiments, just as the circumstances and sentiments described in the poem of Du Fu (712-770) , a poet of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), which runs:"neighbors crowd round the corners under the top of walls; they sigh and sob with sniffing; they talk till the dead of night with lights in hands; sitting face to face they appear as if they were in dream and sleep."

Recently, I often see my wife buried herself on the desk writing diligently, her passion and silly disposition gives me a near and dear feeling as of the situation of our studying hard together when we were young reappeared before me. In those years we got to know each other by the US Michigan Lake, I served in succession as teacher in the University of Wisconsin and University of Connecticut, Fangyu also studied for academic degrees at Minnesota and Connecticut universities. In order to write out good dissertations, my wife was eager to do that work, she consulted reference materials again and again, and repeatedly confirmed them before she sat down to write the theses. This time after we came back from the mainland, our studies were already piled up with various kinds of materials, I am happy to see that she again took up her pen to write down her feeling about the tour.

I recall that in the summer of 1968 when we were ready to go back to serve in Taiwan, so in our way back we first went from the United States to tour Europe for 40 days, leaving our footprints everywhere in Britain, France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Thereafter, my wife wrote the book "Notes on European Tour" in response to the invitation of the Crown Publishing. At that time I discovered that Fangyu was fond of writing, and noticed her power of minute observation and her fine and fluent style of writing.

Unfortunately in the past five to six years, I was twice busy for election campaigns, and she also lent me a helping hand in this regard and thus threw away her pen, this is what I feel sorry for her, and is where I am unworthy of her help.

To be frank, I am a man of a relatively strict personality, while she is always romantic and dreamy, we have been able to live and work hand in hand for 40 years without grievance and remorse, we need to tolerate and support each other before we can get over enmity and concert our efforts in dealing with things foreign. I owe a lot to my family during my 30-year career of official work, fortunately, my clever wife and companion helps me educate and bring up our four children and look after my mother in her advanced age, relieving me of any worries behind, so that I can concentrated on my political career. After I decided to leave my party post, I hope Fangyu can have more time to pick up her pen again and enjoy the pleasure of writing.

This time I saw that she was actively sorting out the materials concerning our mainland visit in order to leave behind a record evidence of history, as her nearest partner, I am deeply honored to be the first reader of her work.

This situation reminds me of the fact that after having experienced the ups and downs of the political circles over many years and the rises and falls of world affairs, I all the more feel that my family members are the dearest and most lovable, "my wife draws on paper a composition (chess game), and my young son makes a fishhook out of a needle", the quiet, comfortable family life makes me feel joyful and satisfied.

The two sides of the Straits join hand to make money from the world

The journey of peace is an unforgettable travel. Before our departure, I had made much mental preparation for the speech to be delivered at Peking University and speeches to be given on dozens of occasions, as to the trouble taken by my wife for my traveling bag, I came to have a full understanding of her intention only after I read the descriptions in her book. What's worth mentioning here is that before we left Taiwan for the mainland, I simply had no idea that I would be asked to inscribe on different occasions. Therefore, for the contents of the inscriptions, whether on board the airplane, in the train and even in the hotel, her warmhearted help had fortunately relieved me of embarrassment.

In Houzaimen Primary School, my Alma Mater in Xi'an, as we saw the situation of girl and boy students writing with brush, my wife and I were deeply moved. Calligraphy and poems are treasures of Chinese culture, in those years when the cultural revolution (1966-76) was raging on the other side of the Straits to destroy the four olds (old ideas, cultures, customs and habits), Taiwan was actively pushing forward the movement for the renaissance of Chinese culture; but today when students of the younger generation on the mainland are studying ways to retain Chinese culture, Taiwan launches the "de-China" campaign, and Eight Diagrams culture is prevalent. Can such a contrast be described by the two words "sorrowful and traumatic"?

Although I had the feeling of regret over the late meeting in my first mainland visit, it, however, proves the correctness of the saying "seeing is believing". Having traveled personally, the experience I gained naturally is different. The progress of a country requires an environment of peace and stability, as well as lofty ideals and courage and vigor to press construction forward. Taiwan's past economic miracles and the rise of the Chinese mainland's strength in recent years are both attributed to a stable internal environment, a strong ambition and an operational team under correct leadership.

The trip also gives me a better understanding that "upholding peace, reciprocity and win-win cooperation" is the only way for Taiwan and the mainland to take. "Taiwan and the mainland join hand in cooperation to make money from the world" is the call I openly gave in Peking University, which has gained extensive response from people across the Straits. I also pledge that in the remaining years of my life, with my knowledge and experience, I will contribute my own energy and efforts to the major program for peace across the Straits and for the prosperity and mightiness of the Chinese nation. Perhaps the peaceful road is rough and bumpy and there are still many difficulties to be overcome by the two sides of the Straits, when opportunity arises, I wish I would visit other cities of the mainland, so that I could travel wider areas and see more things, to ensure that I take root in Taiwan, have the mainland in mind and the world in view.

This article on the third page of People's Daily Overseas Edition, August 3, is translated by People's Daily Online