The visit of Hung Hsiu-chu, chairwoman of Taiwan's Kuomintang party, to the mainland this week will be significant for improving the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations, according to academics.

Hung arrived in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, on Sunday to start a five-day visit, making her first stop at the Mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of the KMT.

On Monday, she will fly to Beijing for a forum on the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations as well as meetings with high-level leaders of the Communist Party of China.