Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao carried on efforts to boost the friendship between the people of China and Japan by exercising with Tokyo locals in a park on Monday morning.

"The friendship between China and Japan had its base at the non-governmental or grassroots level," the Chinese premier said on the three-day official visit to Tokyo, which ran from Sunday to Tuesday.

Wen was carrying on with efforts made on an "ice-melting" visit to Japan three years ago, when he also exercised with the public and played baseball with university students.

Sino-Japanese relations had been back on a healthy track and improved over the past three years, the Chinese premier said.

In addition to jogging and playing Taiji in Yoyogi Park in downtown Tokyo Monday and playing baseball with students at the stadium of Sophia University, Wen paid calls on people from the economic and cultural circles and those known for promoting the bilateral ties, sending the message that China attached importance to non-governmental and cultural exchanges between the two east Asian neighbors.

It was, indeed, a reflection of the bilateral ties propelled by efforts made at non-governmental level dating back to over 2,000 years ago.

The aroma of Chinese culture can be felt from the cultural traditions of Japan, and both cultures are intertwined, Yohei Kono, former speaker of the Japanese House of Representatives of the Parliament, has said.

Wen met Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on the three-day visit. China and Japan agreed to re-establish a hot line between the premiers of the two countries and signed agreements on food safety, energy conservation, environmental protection and e-commerce.

"Ice has been melting," and "plants are thriving" as spring comes, Wen said, composing a Haiku -- a form of traditional Japanese poem.

The Chinese premier urged the two countries to "take history as a mirror" and "look into the future," referring to a tragic eight-year war in the 1930s and 1940s when Japan invaded China. The war killed tens of millions of people in China, mostly innocent civilians, and many from Japan.

Obviously, the history shows the importance of peace and friendship between China and Japan to the well-being of the two peoples. Steady and healthy bilateral relations and friendship, in particular, are in the fundamental interests of China and Japan, Asia and the world.

China insisted on both countries taking history as a mirror and looking into the future, absolutely not to instigate hostility, but to encourage valuing the hard-earned peace and prevent tragedies from being repeated, Wen said.

"Although there are still some problems and conflicts between the two countries, and some misunderstanding between the two peoples, I am confident the China-Japan friendship is rooted among the two peoples and we must inherit and push forward the friendship," Wen said.