Setting his foot on the mainland for the first time in more than 10 years, 66-year-old Liu Chien-ming from Taiwan was astonished to see how much this once-familiar land had changed.

Liu was a village representative among a visiting delegation consisting of 20 grassroots officials and villagers from Taiwan's Gongguan township in Miaoli county. The group made a 7-day trip from July 7 to 15 to Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei province.

"The mainland has changed a lot from my last visit!" Liu said after visiting the Sino-German International Industrial Park.