Thousands turned up to catch a glimpse of Taiwan’s opposition leader Lien Chan and his family Sunday as they paid their respects to his grandmother’s mainland grave for the first time in 60 years.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian called on rival China to negotiate with his government. Chen’s administration has been annoyed by Lien’s visit, seeing it as part of Chinese efforts to isolate his pro-independence government.
Lien’s trip to Xi’an, the city where he was born and his grandmother died during World War II, followed a landmark visit to Beijing, where he met China’s President and Communist Party leader Hu Jintao.
That meeting was the highest-level contact between the two parties since China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949.
As many as 15,000 townspeople lined the hills around the grave site to wish Lien well, cheering when he arrived. Some waved banners saying “Welcome Home Lien Chan.”
