BEIJING: A Chinese man has been reunited with his kidnapped son after a 24-year search that saw him travel half a million kilometres across China on a motorbike, chasing tipoffs on the boy’s whereabouts.

Guo Gangtang’s son was just two years and five months old when he was abducted in 1997 from in front of the family home in eastern Shandong province, where he was playing unattended. Traffickers snatched the boy and sold him to a family in central China.

After years of searching, police told Guo on Sunday that a DNA test had confirmed that a 26-year-old teacher living in central Henan province was really Guo’s long-lost son.

Guo is seen sobbing into his palms while his wife hugs their son, Guo Zhen, during a reunion event in a photo released on Tuesday by the public security ministry.

“Now that the child has been found, everything can only be happy from now on,” Guo said through tears in a video.

After his son was abducted, then 27-year-old Guo quit his job and criss-crossed the country on a motorbike with large flags bearing his son’s photo tied to the back.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2021