China News Service, Hangzhou, December 10th (Guo Qiyu) With the optimization of the epidemic prevention policy in mainland China, Zhang Hongxiang, an official of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee, received a WeChat message from his cousin Lin Zihan from Taiwan, "I don't know when the two sides of the strait will be like the two sides of the mainland. It is also convenient to travel between provinces.”

Zhang Hongxiang replied, "I believe this day will come soon."

　　From letters to WeChat, the family writing is full of family ties between the two sides of the strait, and there is even a desire for reunion.

Behind the "Family Letters from Both Sides of the Taiwan Strait" is the journey home of Zhang Hongxiang's three generations of relatives in Taiwan for more than 70 years.

　　The following is Zhang Hongxiang's dictation:

　　Zihan is from Taichung, Taiwan.

During her junior year in college in 2018, she came to Hangzhou from Taichung alone, setting foot on mainland land for the first time.

Seeing the idyllic pastoral songs on the outskirts of Hangzhou and the high-rise buildings in the city overturned her imagination of the mainland.

Zihan said, "If grandpa is here, he must be very happy to see today's prosperity." The grandfather Zihan is talking about is Li Tianfu, my grandfather's only younger brother. My name is little grandpa.

　　My grandfather was originally from Quzhou, Zhejiang. My grandfather was adopted into a rich family when he was a child. My grandfather went to the provincial capital to study, and the two brothers separated.

In order to resist Japan and save the nation, my grandpa joined the National Revolutionary Army and went to the battlefield.

In order to avoid his family's worries, he has been traveling around in the name of doing business, sending letters to his family to report his safety.

　　At the beginning of 1949, my grandfather went to Taiwan with the army. Since then, he has been separated from his relatives in his hometown for nearly 40 years and has never heard from him.

　　In the 1980s, cross-strait policies were loosened.

The little grandpa participated in the Veterans Returning Home Movement, and they held banners in the parade. There were only eight words on the chest of the little grandpa's clothes: I want to go home, I miss my mother.

Little did he know at the time that his parents had died twenty years earlier.

　　At the end of 1987, Taiwan opened the door to visit relatives in the mainland, and the first batch of 100,000 application forms prepared by the registration department for family visits were accepted by the homesick people.

In 1988, the little grandfather and his family were the first to embark on the road back to their hometown, and finally returned to their hometown of Quzhou after two days of travelling.

My grandfather was already waiting at the station. After the meeting, the two brothers hugged each other and cried, and everyone present was moved to tears.

　　During the half month in Quzhou, the little grandfather worshiped his ancestors, enjoyed the beauty of his hometown, tasted the taste of his hometown, and visited relatives and friends.

Before his death in 2015, he had returned to his hometown five times to visit his relatives, and he often communicated with his relatives in mainland China by letter.

　　When the grandfather was dying, he still thought about the mainland. He was afraid that if he lost his bond, his family in Taiwan would lose contact with their relatives in Quzhou.

He repeatedly asked his children to visit his hometown more often, because the roots are there.

　　Zihan's mother once went back to her hometown to visit relatives with her little grandfather, and visited her hometown of Quzhou.

During my visit to Taiwan in 2017, I also took a special trip to Taichung to visit relatives in Taiwan.

　　Cousin Zi Han also had many concerns before coming to the mainland. If it wasn't for her grandfather and the warm invitation from her relatives and friends in the mainland, she might not have set foot on the mainland so early.

　　However, what he saw and heard in the mainland gave Zihan a new understanding of the mainland, and he also had the idea of ​​studying and working in the mainland, and then participated in the one-year exchange student program of South China University of Technology.

　　After graduating from university, I helped her contact an internship unit in Hangzhou to engage in design work.

During the internship, she gave lectures on Taiwan's customs and customs for the company, which was very popular with everyone.

In 2021, she started working in the e-commerce logistics industry.

　　Since I helped Zihan download WeChat for the first time in 2018 and became her first WeChat friend, she now has over 500 WeChat friends, and has her own circle of friends and work in mainland China.

Zihan said that in Taiwan, you can only see Taiwan, while in the mainland you can see the whole world.

　　The time has spanned more than 70 years. After his death, the lifelong dream of returning to the hometown of the little grandfather's generation, his descendants embarked on this road of returning to the hometown again, continuing the blood connection with relatives in the mainland, and pursuing the dream of returning to the hometown. The children of this homeland are sincere.

　　Whether we are on the mainland or our relatives far away on the other side, we all believe that this strait should not be a natural barrier, but a thoroughfare.

(Finish)