FUZHOU -- A cultural exchange event highlighting shared heritage and integrated development across the Taiwan Strait kicked off on Tuesday in Pingtan Comprehensive Experimental Area of East China's Fujian province.

People from all ethnic groups, including Taiwan compatriots, jointly shaped the rich and vast homeland throughout the Chinese nation's thousands of years of history, said Su Hui, vice-chairperson of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, at the opening ceremony.

Su, also chairperson of the Central Committee of the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League, urged efforts to uphold firm historical confidence, continuously reinforce the sense of identity with the Chinese nation, Chinese culture and the motherland, and encouraged people to take pride in the Chinese identity.

Tseng Yung-chuan, former vice-chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang party, called for expanding cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation in various sectors on the basis of the 1992 Consensus to resolve misunderstandings and narrow differences.

Around 300 representatives of ethnic minorities, academics and people from all walks of life across the Strait attended the two-day event. It also features an exhibition on maritime culture and roundtable dialogues.