Some 700,000 Taiwan compatriots, or three percent of Taiwan's population, live on the Chinese mainland on a regular basis, according to Ye Kedong, deputy director of Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

More than 10,000 students from Taiwan are attending universities of the Chinese mainland, while half a million people from both sides have married each other.

Ye made the remarks at a forum held on Sunday in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province. The forum, which focused on Yandi, the legendary founder of Chinese agriculture, was attended by more than 300 people from both sides of the Taiwan Straits.

According to Ye, Taiwan residents have made 37 million journeys to the Chinese mainland, while mainlanders made 1.2 million trips to the island.

The Chinese mainland had by last year approved 68,000 ventures in which Taiwan business people had invested 41.7 billion U.S. dollars into mainland businesses.