BEIJING, Sept. 22 (Xinhuanet  by Xinhua writers Tian Sulei and Mao Leilei ) -- Famous Taiwan writer and cultural figure Li Ao, who is visiting the Chinese mainland, said thanks to the Communist Party of China for the country's prosperity.

"I remember as a boy, I once saw a farmer walk into the city carrying a shoulder pole. At one end of the pole hanged a basket of vegetables, while at the other end a basket holding his son," the 70-year-old Li said here about his childhood memory of Beijing in an interview with Hong Kong's Phoenix cable network.

"When he left in the evening, he had sold both the vegetables and his son. I could see the tears in his eyes," said Li.

Li, born in 1935 in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, had spent his first 14 years on the Chinese mainland before leaving for Taiwan in 1949. He lived in Beijing in most of this period.

He said in that time, many Chinese people had difficulty in getting enough to eat. To keep their children from starving, some of the farmers sold their children to urban families.

"China had experienced such poor conditions in the past," said Li. "But the situation now is truly much better. I thank the Communist Party of China."

After the interview, he met with his primary school classmates and an 81-old games master at noon.

Li arrived in Beijing Monday for a 10-day "Chinese culture trip", his first trip back to the Chinese mainland after he left for Taiwan at age 14.

He is scheduled to make speeches in three prestigious Chinese universities in Beijing and Shanghai, meet primary school classmates, teachers and visit some landmark places.

He had made a speech in Beijing University and visited some places in Beijing, including the Imperial Palace.

Days before Li Ao's arrival, the Chinese mainland media started publishing articles about the trip and Li himself, a legendary figure in the eyes of many Chinese readers. Books written by him are available in all major bookstores in Beijing.

Li is known as a gifted writer, an ardent supporter of China's reunification and an earnest scholar.

Li once received a Nobel prize nomination for his historical novel involving a temple in Beijing.

Li's mainland trip is being closely watched by media organizations in China and overseas. He is seen as representing another channel of exchanges between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, a Chinese island.

Relations between the mainland and Taiwan have been estranged since the Chinese civil war. At the end of the war, some people originally living on the mainland and China's former ruling party Kuomintang moved to Taiwan.

This year witnessed friendly exchanges between the Communist Party of China and three political parties in Taiwan, namely the Kuomintang, the People First Party and the New Party, in hopes of effecting an eventual reunification of China.