Chairman of the People First Party (PFP) in Taiwan James CY Soong said Friday that seeking the root and remembering the origin are important for the people across the Taiwan Straits to address their current problems.

In his elegiac addressing to Huangdi, who was regarded as the ancestor of all the Chinese, Soong said all the Chinese should not forget their root and origin and both the mainland and Taiwan are in the same family.

Soong led his PFP delegation to pay homage to the mausoleum of Huangdi, more than 100 kilometers away from Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, the first leg of Soong's nine-day mainland visit.

Thousands of Xi'an residents and tourists from around the country enthusiastically welcomed Soong and his delegation.

A middle-aged man shook hands with Soong and said, "Soong's homage-paying to Huangdi symbolizes psychological cohesion of the Chinese nation."

In response to the warmth of surrounding people, Soong said that the two sides across the Straits should help each other and open a new chapter of the great Chinese civilization.

Soong arrived in Xi'an Thursday afternoon for the mainland trip, whose itinerary also covers Nanjing, capital of the Kuomintang-ruled Republic of China before 1949, Shanghai, the biggest business hub in the mainland, Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, and the Chinese capital Beijing.