The Cross-Straits Youth Forum took place in Taicang, Jiangsu province on Aug 10, marking the opening of a cross-Straits exchange event organized by the Taiwan office of Taicang and the Taicang Youth Federation.

The exchange event, which ran until Aug 13, is aimed at promoting exchanges between students from Taiwan and the Chinese mainland.

Liu Dengzhong, vice director of the executive management committee of the KMT, as well as 17 students from 12 Taiwan universities attended the event in Taicang.

The visitors met with eight Taicang-born students from six mainland universities on the opening day to exchange ideas about China's Belt and Road Initiative.

According to the local authority, the forum is expected to lay a good foundation and blaze a new path for further cooperation among young people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and enable Taiwan teenagers to get to know Taicang.

During the event, the Taiwan and mainland students participated in an orienteering competition, with the route designed to pass historical landmarks in Taicang. They also visited Shaxi Town in Taicang, and the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and Presidential Palace in Nanjing.