The Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in east China's Nanjing city is a place of pilgrimage for the Chinese people. State leaders and political figures have been visiting the site for decades. The mausoleum also serves as a bridge connecting people on both sides of the Taiwan strait.

Sun Yat-sen is regarded as an outstanding patriot and national hero. He led the Revolution of 1911 which overthrew the Qing Dynasty, and put an end to over 2,000 years of feudal monarchy in China.

He was appointed to serve as Provisional President of the Republic of China when it was founded in 1912. But he quickly resigned due to pressure from warlords.

He continued his fight to push forward the revolution and founded the Kuomintang, or the “Chinese Nationalist Party”, serving as its first leader.

He brokered a fragile alliance between the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang in the 1920s, and the two parties worked together in the Northern Expedition against the warlords in an effort to unify the country.

In conformity with the trends of the times, Sun Yat-sen developed his Three Principles of the People.

Sun also kept an eye on events outside China, like the October Revolution in Russia and spread of Marxism. Within China, he realized the significance of the May Fourth Movement in 1919 and the foundation of the Communist Party of China, which he believed would advance China’s democratic revolution. He then adopted major policies of "Allying with Russia and the CPC", and "supporting peasants and workers".

Sun passed away at an early age. He was just 58 years old when he died of liver cancer on March 12, 1925. Both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party honor his memory.

He was buried, according to his wishes, in the Purple Golden Mountain in Nanjing, the city where the provisional government was founded after the 1911 Revolution.

The deep historical significance, magnificent architecture and beautiful scenery make Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum a place of pilgrimage for Chinese people.

One notable visit was in 2005, when Taiwan's Kuomintang chief Lien Chan paid tribute to the first leader of his party. That visit was the first by an incumbent Kuomintang chief in 56 years.

On October 30 this year, the current leader of the Kuomintang Party, Hung Hsiu-chu, visited the Mausoleum as the first stop of her first visit to the mainland as party chief.

Her party has been removed from power in Taiwan, but she says exchanges cannot stop between the two sides.

The Sun Yat-sen's was to pursue the great Renaissance of the Chinese nation and achieve prosperity for the people.