Visiting Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng paid a courtesy call Thursday on Cecilia Y. Koo, wife of the late Koo Chen-fu, Taiwan's former top negotiator with the mainland, who died in 2005.

Koo extended a warm welcome to Han during the meeting held at the Cheng Hsin Rehabilitation Medical Center in suburban Taipei.

She told Han that he reminded her of the common wish of her late husband and of Wang Daohan, the late president of Beijing's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits - peace across the Straits.

Koo and Wang were the first two cross-Straits officials to start an ice-breaking cross-Straits dialogue after an impasse of five decades dating back to 1949. Koo visited Shanghai for an SEF-ARATS meeting, but Wang never visited Taiwan.

"Your visit here convinces me that the prospects for peace across the Straits are getting increasingly brighter," Koo told Han.

Koo, in her capacity as chairwoman of the Cheng Hsin Rehabilitation Medical Center, accompanied Han on a brief tour of the hospital established by Madame Chiang Kai-shek in 1967.

In return, Han made a donation of RMB1.5 million yuan ($219,700) to the hospital for the treatment and rehabilitation of children suffering from hearing impairment.

The hospital was the final stop on the itinerary of Han and his entourage in Taipei City since their arrival two days earlier.

Han later proceeded to Taipei County on a whirlwind visit. Taipei County Magistrate Chou Hsi-wei hosted a lunch in honor of Han and his delegation at a beachside restaurant in Wanli township.

After the lunch, they visited the nearby Yeliou Geopark to see the locally renowned "Queen's Head," one of several rock formations that dot the Yeliou Cape, located on the north coast of Taiwan.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 04/09/2010 page8)