XI'AN: He was only one of 10,000 to pay their respects to the founder of the Chinese nation on Saturday, yet as honorary chairman of the Kuomintang, Lien Chan was the highest ranking official of the KMT in 60 years to attend the mourning ceremony of Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor.

"People living across the Taiwan Straits share the same Chinese roots, the same ancestor. Nothing can, or should, separate them from each other. Blood is thicker than water," Lien said.

He led a 35-member delegation from Taiwan to join the ceremony at the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum on Qiaoshan Mountain in northwest China's Shaanxi province.