SHANGHAI -- Ma Ying-jeou, former chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang party, has spoken highly of the mainland's development during his recent visit.

"I found that the mainland is developing very fast in various respects, some of which we hadn't even dreamed of, so to speak," said Ma, calling for more cross-Strait cooperation.

Ma arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday. He visited a city management center at the Pudong New Area, where he learned about efforts to apply information technology to improve urban governance and management.

Before Shanghai, Ma has led a group of Taiwan students visiting several cities on the mainland in recent days, including Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha and Chongqing.

In the city of Changsha, Hunan Province, they visited a factory of a private enterprise that donated machinery equipment to help disaster relief efforts in Taiwan, which was hit hard by a typhoon in 2009.

Learning that six young people from Taiwan have internships on a Hunan television program, Ma expressed his expectation that they would grasp the opportunity and work hard to promote cross-Strait cultural exchanges.

Ma also learned about a logistics network in the city of Chongqing.

According to Ma's itinerary, he will visit Fudan University and other places in Shanghai on Thursday, and will conclude his maiden visit to the mainland and return to Taiwan on Friday.