Yok Yu-ming, chairman of the New Party in Taiwan, left Taipei at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday for an eight-day tour to the mainland.

Yok and his 30-member delegation are expected to arrive in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, at around 14:00 via Hong Kong.

The New Party delegation will be visiting the mainland on a "journey of the Chinese nation", as it calls, to mark the 60th anniversary of China's victory over the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

Following the footsteps of Chinese Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan and People First Party leader James Soong, the New Party is making the mainland trip to play its role in Taiwan's Pan-Blue Alliance to improve relations across the Taiwan Straits, Yok said in a telephone interview with Xinhua before boarding the plane at Taipei airport.

He said the airport was quiet and in good order, a sign that exchanges across the Taiwan Straits are "normal".

Yok said it is the opportune time for the New Party delegation to tour the mainland to commemorate the Lugou Bridge (also known as the Macro Polo Bridge) Incident in north China on July 7, 1937,which marked the launching of China's war of resistance against the Japanese aggressors.

"It's also a historic moment to remind Chinese descendents both at home and overseas to draw a lesson from history and shoulder the historic mission of maintaining national unity and seeking peaceful reunification of the motherland," he told Xinhua.

The mainland tour, from July 6 to 13, will also take Yok and his delegation to Nanjing, Dalian and Beijing.

(Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2005)