Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) party, led a KMT delegation on Saturday to pay tribute to Sun Yat-sen, a great forerunner of China’s democratic revolution, at the cenotaph in Beijing.
The cenotaph is located in Biyun Temple at Fragrant Hills in the western suburbs of Beijing. Sun, a founding figure of the KMT and a revered revolutionary leader who played a pivotal role in overthrowing imperial rule in China, died in 1925 in Beijing. His remains were kept in the temple before being transferred to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing in 1929.
At around 9 a.m., the delegation arrived at the temple. In a memorial hall dedicated to Sun, the delegation bowed three times in front of a full-length white marble statue of Sun and then visited the cenotaph to pay their respects.
The delegation members included three KMT vice-chairpersons — Lee Chien-lung, Chang Jung-kung and Hsiao Hsu-tsen.
Cheng is the first KMT chairperson to have led a delegation to the Chinese mainland in the past decade. The visit runs from Tuesday to Sunday. The delegation had visited Jiangsu Province and Shanghai before coming to Beijing. ■
