The Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, a Taiwan-based charity organization, opened its first mainland branch Friday in Suzhou City of Jiangsu Province.

With the approval from the State Council, the Foundation became the first nationwide foundation on the Chinese mainland run by a non-profit organization outside the mainland. Dharma Master Cheng Yen is the director of the mainland branch.

Chen Yunlin, president of the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, and Qi Xiaofei, vice director of State Administration for Religious Affairs, attended the opening ceremony.

After the establishment of the mainland branch, the foundation will further its charity work on the mainland.

Founded by Dharma Master Cheng Yen in 1966, the foundation is a volunteer-based welfare organization. It has been involved in the mainland's charity work since 1991 in over 28 provinces, municipalities and regions.

The foundation helped many mainland leukemia patients acquire donated bone marrow transplants before the mainland established its own marrow donor program.

It also provided support and aid to areas hit by the 8.0-magnitude earthquake on May 12 in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Dharma Master Cheng Yen, born in 1937 in Taichung, has raised more than 10 billion New Taiwan Dollars for charity during the past 40 years.