The Lost Love

2021-10-12 20:05:27 Written by Alex

A Chinese man has been reunited with his son after a 24-year investigation that saw him wander over 500,000km (310,000 mi) on a motorbike all over the country.

 

Guo Gangtang's son had been abducted aged two by human traffickers in front of their residence in the region of Shandong.

 

His son's disappearance inspired a film in 2015, in which Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau was a hero.

 

Child kidnappings are a big issue in China, with thousands abducted every year.

 

According to China's Ministry of Public Security, the authority was able to search their son's identity using DNA technology. Two suspects were later chased and caught, told a Global Times report.

 

The suspects, who were dating at the time, had schemed to abduct a kid to sell him for cash, told a report by China News.

 

After spotting Mr. Guo's son playing alone outside his residence, the female suspect recognized only by her surname Tang snatched him and grabbed him to the bus station, where her friend, named Hu, was staying.

 

The pair then took an intercity coach to the neighboring Henan region and sold him there.

 

Local media news says Mr. Guo's son was discovered still living in the province.

 

Mr. Guo and his spouse cried and hugged their son when they were reunited in Liaocheng, Shandong, on Sunday, nation media CCTV documented.

 

"My baby, you came back!" told the mother, whose name was not published, in a video of the reunion.

 

"Now that the child has been discovered, everything can only be glad about now on," Mr. Guo said to reporters.

 

Mr. Lau, who got to realize Mr. Guo while readying to play him in the film Lost and Love, saluted him.

 

"I'd like to tell Brother Guo that I appreciate your persistence," he told, according to the South China Morning Post.

 

After his son was kidnaped in 1997, Mr. Guo reportedly wandered to more than 20 regions around the country on the back of a motorbike hunting tip-offs.

 

In the period, he broke bones in traffic accidents and even encountered highway burglars. Ten motorbikes were also destroyed.

 

Holding up around banners with his son's image on them, he is explained to have spent his life savings on his goal, sleeping under bridges and asking for cash when he ran out of cash.

 

He also became a well-known member of missing-persons unions in China and supported at least seven parents reunite with their lost children.

 

In China, the kidnapping and trafficking of infants have been an issue for decades.

 

In 2015, it was totaled that 20,000 kids were being kidnaped each year in China. Many of them are auctioned into adoption, both domestically and overseas.