Yok Mu-ming(C), chairman of the New Party of Taiwan in southeast China, visits the Lugou Bridge in outskirts of Beijing July 11, 2005. (Xinhua Photo)

    BEIJING, July 11 (Xinhuanet) -- The visiting delegation of the New Party in Taiwan, led by Chairman Yok Mu-ming, visited the Lugou Bridge and the Memorial Hall of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945) near the bridgein southwestern Beijing on Monday morning.

    The delegation first made a brief tour to Lugou Bridge, also known as the Marco Polo Bridge, which used to be well-known for a landscape entitled "Lugou Xiaoyue". It has become famous at home and abroad in association with "July 7 Incident".

    On July 7, 1937, the intruding Japanese forces assaulted Lugou Bridge or Lugou (known as the Marco Polo Bridge), about 20 km away from downtown Beijing, and Chinese defending soldiers responded by gun fire. This has been known as the world-famous Lugou Bridge Incident, which marked Japan's all-out intrusion into north and central China regions.

    After leaving the Lugou Bridge, the New Party delegation visited the Memorial Hall of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

Yok Mu-ming(C), chairman of the New Party of Taiwan in southeast China, bows to the martyrs at the Memorial Hall of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in outskirts of Beijing July 11, 2005. (Xinhua Photo)

    At the entrance room of the memorial hall, Yok, on behalf of the delegation, placed a wreath before the huge relief sculpture, entitled "the great wall of blood and flesh", to show respect to those who lost their lives in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

    Members of the New Party delegation also followed the traditional Chinese way of paying tribute to the deceased by observing silence and making three bows toward the sculpture.

    They also inspected an eight-theme exhibition devoted to the 60th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and of the world anti-fascism war inside the memorial hall.

    Yok made a brief speech at the entrance room. In his speech, Yok urged all the Chinese compatriots to take history as the mirror, be united and make concerted efforts to create a glorious future of the Chinese nation.

    The Memorial Hall of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, built in 1987, is the only large and comprehensive museum featuring the history of Chinese people's resistance against Japanese invaders. It has undergone repairs twice.

    The delegation on Wednesday began eight-day mainland tour underthe theme of commemorating the 60the anniversary of China's victory in the resistance war against Japanese aggression. and has since visited Guangzhou, Nanjing and Dalian.

    Apart from meeting some specialists in Beijing at a forum on Monday afternoon, the delegation will also meet with Liu Qi, Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), who is also a member of the CPC Political Bureau in the evening. Enditem.