Zheng Xinmiao, director of the Palace Museum in Beijing, arrived in Taipei Monday to attend an upcoming exhibition on Emperor Yongzheng (1678-1735) of the Qing Dynasty.

Chou Kung-shin, director of Taiwan's "National Palace Museum", greeted his counterpart at the Taoyuan airport in Taipei.

Both Zheng and Chou expressed their hope that the two sides should step up cooperation.

The exhibition about Emperor Yongzheng will be held from October 7 to January 10 next year.

A total of 246 items will be put on display at the exhibition, including37 items of the royal collections from the Palace Museum in Beijing and 209 items owned by the Taiwan museum.

The royal collections from the mainland include portraits of Emperor Yongzheng and his mistresses, as well as an appliance used by the royal family.

This will be the first reunion of royal collections across the Taiwan Strait after the then Kuomintang (KMT) government shipped 2,971 boxes of about 600,000 items from the former Imperial Palace, or the Forbidden City, in 1949 at the end of a civil war.

(Xinhua News Agency October 6, 2009)