At the invitation of Taiwan's United Daily News Group (UDN), a group of senior journalists from the Chinese mainland kicked off a 10-day visit to Taiwan on Monday.

Led by China National Radio president Wang Qiu, the group is composed of officials from major media on the mainland, including the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, China Central Television, China Radio International, China News Service and China Daily.

The group will go to Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung and other areas on the island, visiting Taiwan's major media organizations and making exchanges with their Taiwan counterparts so as to promote mutual understanding cooperation between the two sides' media industries.

After visiting the UDN headquarters, Wang Qiu said recent years have witnessed close media exchanges across the Taiwan Straits, adding that he hoped to learn from the experience of Taiwan's media in order to contribute to the common development of the two sides.

Duncan Wang, chairman of the UDN Group, said the group will further strengthen its exchanges with mainland press, helping develop cross-Straits relations.

This is the fourth media heads group from the mainland to visit Taiwan. Sun Zhijun, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and Ye Kedong, deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the CPC Central Committee, are among three consultants with the visiting group, together with Wang Dongmei, a senior official from the All-China Journalists Association.