The ancestral temple for many families who have origins in Gushi is a place for both worshipping ceremonies and cultural exchanges. [Photo by Xiang Mingchao/China Daily]

These include John Chiang, vice-chairman of the Kuomintang, the ruling party of Taiwan province.

He is the grandson of Chiang Kai-shek and his ancestors came from Gushi. He visited the county to attend the sixth Gushi Root-Seeking Cultural Festival on Sept 26.

Chiang said that common roots connected people from the mainland and Taiwan and the common culture pushed them to achieve deeper cooperation.

Statistics showed entrepreneurs from Hong Kong and China's Taiwan signed agreements for 32 projects with local businesses during this year's event. They included investment of more than 3.14 billion yuan, which shows the cultural gala's strength as an engine to drive Gushi's economic growth.

Local authorities also hope that the area's paintings and calligraphy could become an economic advantage following exchanges at the festival.

In addition to a series of preferential policies to support the art industry, the county government invested about 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) to build Gushi into the province's first-class calligraphy and painting market.

"We are pushing forward the development of the traditional Chinese arts of calligraphy and painting, making them an important vehicle for both cultural and economic exchanges," said Qu Shangying, Party chief of Gushi.

In 2009, Gushi county was recognized as "China's renowned calligraphy town" by the Federation of Literature and the Chinese Calligraphers Association.

The county has nearly 1,000 people engaged in the trade of calligraphy and painting works and a total of 100 sales outlets.

Each year, about 40,000 works are exported to countries in Europe, the Americas and Southeast Asia, with annual transactions amounting to 20 million yuan.