TAIPEI - Kuomintang honorary chairman Lien Chan departed Taiwan on Monday afternoon for a four day visit to the mainland.

Speaking at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Lien said the visit was about paying a New Year visit to friends. He leads a delegation from a wide range of sectors on a mission of mutual understanding.

He said he would support anything that benefited cross-Straits communication and helped the two sides share peace.

Lien will visit Beijing and meet President Xi Jinping, according to Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, and the delegation will attend a forum with their mainland peers. Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, will also attend the forum.

In 2005, as KMT chairman, Lien met Hu Jintao, predecessor of Xi, in the first talks between leaders of the two parties in six decades. Lien also met Xi last year when Xi assumed his post at the top of the CPC.