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 bridge in 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 titled "Lugou Xiaoyue." It has become famous at home and abroad in association with the July 7 Incident.

On July 7, 1937, the intruding Japanese forces assaulted Lugou Bridge, about 20 km away from downtown Beijing, and Chinese defending soldiers responded by gunfire. This has been known as the world-famous July 7 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.

At the entrance room of the memorial hall, Yok, on behalf of the delegation, placed a wreath before the huge relief sculpture, titled the "Great Wall of Blood and Flesh," to show respect to those who lost their lives in the Anti-Japanese War.

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 a grand exhibition devoted to the 60th anniversary of the end of the world anti-fascism war and of China's victory in the Anti-Japanese War inside the memorial hall.

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

The memorial hall, 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 under the theme of commemorating the 60th anniversary of China's victory in the Anti-Japanese War, 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 in the evening with Liu Qi, secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and also a member of the CPC Political Bureau.

(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2005)