Photo: Weibo

 
A Chinese mainland faculties delegation is scheduled to arrive in the Taiwan island on Saturday to conduct a 9-day visit there. 

According to local media of the island, the Taiwan-based Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, which invited faculties from five mainland universities, disclosed on Friday an itinerary, saying that the visit will last for nine days and will include trips to 16 sites including the National Chengchi University, Chinese Culture University and the Taipei Palace Museum. 

Ma Ying-jeou, former chairperson of the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) party, said earlier on his 73-year birthday on Thursday that it was his best birthday gift to ensure the mainland students and teachers' successfully visit to the Taiwan island, which is also what the people across the Straits want the most. He added that he hoped that cross-Straits exchanges would resume back to normal, China News reported. 

Ma also said in a Facebook post on Thursday that this is the most important exchange group of young friends from the mainland to Taiwan in recent years, and he will personally receive the group.  

According to the itinerary, the flight carrying the visiting group will arrive in the Taiwan island on Saturday and the group on Monday will hold an exchange event with the Fair Winds Foundation established by Jiang Yi-huah, the former head of region's executive branch, and will visit the Taipei 101 building at noon and the National Chengchi University in the afternoon.

The group will visit Chinese Culture University and the Taipei Palace Museum on Tuesday, and National Taiwan University on Wednesday, among other locations.

The group will travel to eastern part of Taiwan island on July 20 to 21, visiting the National Dong Hwa University and Taroko National Park. 

Before they leave Taiwan island on July 23 afternoon, they will also hold talks with the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation on July 22. 

According to a post by Ma on Thursday, the group of mainland students are from Peking University, Tsinghua University, Wuhan University, Hunan University and Fudan University. 

He also wrote in the post that he had the idea to facilitate the visit when he was visiting the mainland at the end of March and early April. 

"At that time, when I visited universities in Wuhan, Hunan and Fudan University for exchanges, teachers and students from the mainland responded enthusiastically, which touched me very much. After I returned to Taiwan, I asked my colleagues to actively promote the trip, hoping to continue the momentum for cross-Straits youth exchanges. When young people on both sides of the Straits gain more understanding and friendship with each other, why do we need to worry about wars and conflicts?" read the post.

When promoting the visit of teachers and students from mainland, the situation was not optimistic at the beginning. Taiwan's mainland affairs council even suggested that we give up the application. It took an unexpected turn in the end, and ended up successfully, he revealed in the post. 

Former Taiwan regional leader Ma arrived in Shanghai in late March, kicking off an ancestral trip in the mainland, which experts viewed as being of special significance to easing the tensions across the Taiwan Straits and enhancing exchanges. 

Global Times