Chongqing - After finishing his visit to Hunan province, Ma Ying-jeou, the former chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang party, arrived in Chongqing on April 3. 

Ma was accompanied by a tour guide who took him to explore the exhibitions about the Three Gorges and the culture of the ancient ethnic Ba at the Three Gorges Museum. Ma showed his interest in various exhibits, including the burial customs of the ancient Ba people and their religious beliefs. He was surprised to learn that the city of Chongqing had withstood a 36-year siege by the Mongol army at Diaoyu Town.

Ma Ying-jeou, former chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang party, led a group of students from Taiwan to Chongqing on April 3. (Photo/Kenny Dong)

Ma Ying-jeou, former chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang party, visited Chongqing on April 3 after concluding his visit to Hunan province. He explored the exhibitions about the Three Gorges and the culture of ancient ethnic Ba at the Three Gorges Museum with a tour guide. The guide mentioned Sun Yat-sen, a great national hero, and patriot who proposed building a dam in the Three Gorges in the 1910s.

Ma expressed his childhood memories of the Three Gorges Dam, stating, "Many parents at that time wished their kids to build the dam at the Three Gorges when they grew up. I was one of them." This was his fifth major city visited during his trip to the Chinese mainland, where he paid respect to his ancestors and advised young students from Taiwan to strengthen exchanges across the Taiwan-Straits.

Chongqing became the wartime capital of the Republic of China during World War II when the Japanese army took the east coast. As a former leader of Kuomintang, Ma's feeling toward the city goes beyond the political meaning. During World War II, his parents attended the Central School of Political Affairs in Chongqing, met each other there, married in Chongqing in 1944, and gave birth to Ma Ying-jeou's elder sister, Ma Yi-nan, the following year.

The Three Gorges Museum, also known as the Chongqing Museum, is a comprehensive historical and art museum featuring Ba culture, Three Gorges culture, war culture, immigration culture, and urban culture. It has a collection of 119,800 pieces (sets) of artifacts with more than 280,000 individual pieces, including Ba-Shu bronzes, Han Dynasty sculptures, ancient paintings and calligraphy, ancient qin, and relics from the World War II period.