Chiang Pin-kun, the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) chairman, spent a full day here on Thursday with activities including paying homage to a revolutionary forerunner and visiting Olympic venues.

In the morning, he paid homage at the tomb containing personal effects of Kuomintang (KMT) founder Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

It was Chiang's second trip to the site. He previously visited in 2005 when he was the then KMT vice chairman.

Accompanied by Chen Yunlin, chairman of the Chinese mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), Chiang and his wife also visited Dr. Sun's memorial hall at Biyun Temple, in the Fragrant Hills in the northwest of Beijing.

He laid a wreath at the statue of Dr. Sun in the memorial hall and made three bows in reverence.

Sun, the pioneer of China's democratic revolution and founder of the KMT, or the Nationalist Party of China, died in 1925 in Beijing. His coffin resided at the temple before it was moved and buried in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, in 1929, the former seat of the KMT regime that ruled China until 1949.

Chiang said the KMT would continue its efforts to realize the ideals put forward by Dr. Sun, who stated "Shi jie da tong, tian xia wei gong", which means "The world is in harmony. The state belongs to the people."

He also hoped the two sides would promote cross-Strait peace and exchange so as to benefit people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

In 1998, the then SEF chairman Koo Chen-fu paid a visit to the tomb.

In the afternoon, Chiang visited the National Aquatics Center, known as the "Water Cube," the major Beijing Olympic venue for hosting swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and water polo events.

He then went to the Beijing Wukesong Sports Center Baseball Field, the venue where KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung had a short tour during his six-day visit to Beijing late last month.

Baseball is one of the most popular sports in the island. Taiwan is pinning its hopes on its baseball team to win a medal in the August Olympiad.

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2008)