Former Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou will visit the mainland next month.

According to the Taiwan Affairs Office under the State Council, Ma will lead a delegation of young people from Taiwan for a visit from April 1 to 11.

The delegation will visit Guangdong and Shaanxi provinces as well as Beijing, and take part in student exchanges at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and Peking University.

The group will also attend a ceremony honouring the legendary ancestor Huangdi, or the Yellow Emperor, along with other events.

Welcoming Ma's visit, Chen Binhua, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office, said he hopes compatriots across the Taiwan Strait would continue to promote exchanges and cooperation and advance the peaceful development of cross-strait ties.

Ma, who's also a former Kuomintang chairman, last year became the first former Taiwan leader to visit the mainland. (Reporting by Xinhua, Reuters)