The significance of the first formal visit in 60 years by a delegation from Taipei Palace Museum to its counterpart in Beijing cannot be overestimated.

It marks an important step in cross-Straits cooperation in cultural fields. This visit makes it possible for 17 cultural relics from the Palace Museum of the Forbidden City to be exhibited in Taipei.

All the cultural relics housed in the museum in Taipei were originally kept in the Palace Museum in Beijing before they were transported to Taiwan 60 years ago.

In the past six decades, exhibitions of the treasures from cultural relics including paintings, ceramics and calligraphies from the Taipei museum made it possible for people on the island to trace and establish their cultural identity.

Epitomizing part of Chinese culture, these art pieces, though being kept far away from their original home, have played their role in reminding people on the island where their cultural roots are.

For historical and political reasons, Chinese people on the mainland never had a chance to witness these cultural treasures housed in the Palace Museum in Taipei. A lack of information even made the exact number of cultural relics kept in the museum a mystery to those on the mainland. Stories through the grapevine even went so far as to suggest that the number was greater than that of similar items in the Palace Museum in Beijing. It is actually the other way around.

But it has been a pity for connoisseurs of art and cultural relics on both sides of the Straits not to have had the chance over the years to witness the cultural treasures kept in the Palace Museum on the other side of the Straits.

The improving relations across the Straits following the opening of the Three Direct Links and the visits by Chinese tourists to the island has made it possible for people on both sides to appreciate the cultural treasures kept in the "other" Palace Museum.

This visit by a delegation from Taipei Palace Museum over the weekend bodes well for further and deeper cooperation between the two museums, which will not only help in better preservation of the cultural relics both keep but also provide chances for art lovers to appreciate the cultural treasures they did not have chance to witness otherwise.

The traveling of Beijing museum's cultural relics to Taipei will greatly enrich the exhibition on the Yongzheng Emperor of Qing Dynasty there. However, efforts should also be made for the treasures in Taipei to travel to the mainland to realize a truly two-way exchange. The current problems in legal matters should not stand in the way of the exchange, and can be solved if there is a determination for a closer cooperation in this field.