Southern sojourn

Ma and the Taiwan youths stayed for three days in Guangdong province, the forefront of China's reform and opening-up, and visited high-profile technology companies, including the internet giant Tencent, China's largest electric vehicle manufacturer BYD, and drone manufacturer DJI.

At BYD's exhibition hall, Ma had a chance to inspect the company's most advanced technology and products. He posed many questions to BYD executives about the development of electric vehicles on the mainland.

For example, he repeatedly asked about the mainland's policies to encourage people to use electric vehicles including which one was the most effective.

The Taiwan youths took selfies in front of different types of new energy concept car models, with some half-jokingly declaring they wanted "to drive one home".

A visit to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge also appeared to leave the Taiwan students in awe. At the exchange event at Sun Yat-sen University, two Taiwan youths said in their speeches that they were impressed by the expanse, the world's longest cross-sea bridge.

Tang Yi-xiang from the Taiwan Ocean University, said of the highlights: "I was most interested in the world's most spectacular cross-sea bridge, because my major is river and ocean engineering."

"The bridge not only shortens the distance between the three places but is also a great showcase of the mainland's engineering technology to the world," Tang added.

Wan Yu-ming, a first-year graduate student from Taiwan's Sun Yatsen University, said: "We can see the result of how the central and local governments coordinated to ensure the quality of the project and guarantee its smooth completion."