Yok Mu-ming, chairman of Taiwan's New Party, left Taipei at 10 AM on Wednesday for an eight-day tour of the mainland.

Yok and his 30-member delegation arrived at Hong Kong International Airport at noon, and are expected to arrive in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, at around 2 PM.

The New Party group is beginning what it has called a "journey of the Chinese nation" to mark the 60th anniversary of China's victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

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

He said the airport was quiet and in good order, a sign that exchanges across the straits were "normal."

Yok said it was an opportune time for the 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 launch of the war.

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

(Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2005)