BEIJING, April 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Chairman Lien Chan of the Kuomintang (KMT) Party of China arrived in Beijing at about 11:10 Thursday to continue his eight-day mainland visit.

    Beijing is the second leg on his mainland visit itinerary, nextto Nanjing, which used to be the capital of the Republic of China,and followed by Xi'an and Shanghai.

    Upon his arrival in Nanjing Tuesday afternoon, Lien said at the aprons of Nanjing Lukou Airport that his visit to the mainland will be a "historic first step" for the promotion of cross-Straitsrelations.

    This is the first time that the KMT chairman has set feet on the mainland since 1949 when the KMT lost a civil war to the Communist Party of China (CPC) and fled to Taiwan, an island province opposite to eastern coastal Fujian Province.

    After warm-ups led by KMT Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kung in March, Lien was invited by the CPC Central Committee and General Secretary Hu Jintao.

    The Hu-Lien summit, which was scheduled for Friday, will be the first of its kind between the CPC and the KMT in nearly six decades.

    Late CPC Chairman Mao Zedong and KMT Chairman Chiang Kai-shek conducted the latest meeting in August 1945 in Chongqing, the wartime capital of China, in a bid to negotiate a truce. The two sides failed to clinch a formal peace till now.

    Lien's mainland visit was described by the KMT as a "journey ofpeace".

    In a speech after paying homage to Dr. Sun Yat-sen (1886-1925),founding father of the KMT Wednesday morning, Lien said the two sides across the Straits should strive to achieve common prosperity in a peaceful and going-all-out mentality against the backdrop of the current "stalemate".

    Besides Nanjing and Beijing, Lien was scheduled to visit Xi'an,where he was born on the eve of the invasion of the Japanese troops, and Shanghai, the biggest financial and trade hub in the mainland. Enditem