【Digest】宋楚瑜经港返台（在线收听）

Hometown ready to welcome back PFP Chairman James Soong 
 
2005-05-08 01:53:50 Xinhua English
 
CHANGSHA, May 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Streets are sprinkled with clean water. Bacon and rice wine prepared. In Shebu, a town in central China's Hunan Province, local people are ready to welcome back an important leader to his hometown.

James CY Soong, chairman of the People First Party (PFP) in Taiwan, will return to Juyu, a village within the township, Mondaymorning to pay homage to his ancestors. He will also visit the primary school where he once studied and have a brief reunion withhis younger female cousin Liu Manjun in Xiangtan after being gone for more than half a century, said sources with the Hunan provincial government.

"James Soong is coming back. We feel very glad about it. It's a happy event of our village," said a farmer working in the fields.

Soong, born in 1942, left the Chinese mainland for Taiwan Province in 1949 when the Kuomintang government fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war to the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Exchanges between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, separated bythe 100-km-wide Taiwan Straits, have been limited. The move for independence by the Taiwan authorities in recent years has increased tensions, a situation the PFP and the Pan-Blue Alliance it forms with the Kuomintang and the New Party strive to rectify. The alliance holds more than half of the legislative seats in Taiwan.

Liu Manjun has been rather busy these days. She has been preparing gifts for cousin Soong and his delegation visiting the mainland at the invitation of the CPC Central Committee and its General Secretary Hu Jintao and receiving reporters.

"I saw him on TV," Liu said excitedly. "When we meet, I want tohave a long chat with him."

She said she'll present Soong with a fine silk embroidery, a mounted map of the city area and a family photo taken in Nanjing in 1947.

Soong Yangxi, aunt of James Soong, said she and her husband will treat James Soong with home-made bacon and rice wine. They'llalso give him a pack of home-grown tea when he leaves.

"General Secretary Hu Jintao invited James Soong to make the visit. That's an honor on the Songs," said husband Wang Youqi.

The PFP's nine-day mainland visit began on May 5 close on the heels of a mainland trip by the KMT. The KMT, the largest opposition party in Taiwan, concluded its eight-day mainland visiton May 3.

According to arrangements at the moment, Soong and the PFP delegation will fly to Changsha, capital of Hunan, from Shanghai Sunday afternoon. After their arrival, secretary of the Hunan provincial committee of the CPC will host a banquet in their honor.

The delegation will drive to Juyu, conduct the ancestor worshipactivity and then go to the downtown Xiangtan Monday morning, where Soong will meet with city officials and some relatives and attend a welcoming banquet.

On Monday afternoon, Soong will visit his primary school, meet his cousin and then return to Changsha.

On Tuesday morning, the party will fly to Beijing after visiting a renowned learning site, the Yuelu College and the popular provincial museum. James Soong is expected to meet Hu Jintao in Beijing.

"We have learned that many reporters, both Chinese and foreign,will be here to cover the trip. We have made preparations for it,"said an official with the provincial government.

Soong's mother Hu Tiaorong, who is in her 80s, and some relatives, arrived at Changsha Saturday afternoon and received a warm welcome.

Most residents of Taiwan can trace their ancestral roots to themainland. Reports say even Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian and his workmate Lu Hsiu-lien have roots on the mainland, with some of their close relatives still living.

Upon his arrival to the mainland on May 5, James Soong told thewelcoming crowd at Xi'an airport he made the visit to "serve as a bridge between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland for mutual trust, mutual understanding and cooperation."

He said that people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits are descendants of Yandi and Huangdi, legendary forefathers of the Chinese nation.

"We are of one family and should jointly create our great common future," Soong told the cheering crowds.