TAIPEI - Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong, heading a delegation of more than 20 high-ranking officials, scholars and artists, arrived in Taipei Thursday on a six-day visit to strengthen cultural ties between the two sides.

Guo, who is also deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China Beijing Municipal Committee, first met Kuomintang (KMT) Honorary Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung at the Grand Hotel upon arriving in the afternoon.

Guo is visiting the island at the invitation of the KMT central committee. He is the mainland's first high-level local official to visit Taiwan this year.

Wu told Guo that he had been to Beijing many times and was impressed by the progress of the city's infrastructure construction. He hopes Beijing and Taiwan will enhance cooperation and interaction.

"Fruits of the peaceful development across the Taiwan Strait have been hard won," Wu said, adding that efforts should be made to prove to people on both sides that such a peaceful road is correct and especially beneficial for Taiwanese people.

Guo said his visit aims to strengthen understanding of the island's culture and people and he hopes to promote cooperation between the two sides. During the visit, Guo's delegation is scheduled to participate in a series of cultural events, talk with college students, and visit farm produce markets, the well-known Eslite Bookstore and ethnic minorities' villages.

Meanwhile, an exhibition on Beijing's modern and traditional arts and crafts kicked off Thursday in Taipei as part of the Beijing Culture Week being held from February 16 to March 11 in Taiwan.

The exhibition features 40 paintings, photographs, sculptures and installation works by artists from Beijing's 798 Art Zone, a thriving artistic community of international fame in an abandoned factory complex in eastern Beijing.

The same stage also showcases about 200 pieces of traditional art and craft from Beijing, such as shadow plays, Peking opera masks, palace lanterns, clay, dough and silk figurines, traditional kites, paper cuttings and traditional Chinese musical instruments. And 14 masters of traditional Beijing arts and crafts will demonstrate their skills at the exhibition.

The show, jointly held by Beijing and Taipei's cultural bureaus, aims to help Taiwanese visitors gain a better understanding of traditional Chinese craft and modern arts, organizers said.

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