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Tearful reunion: Guo Gangtang, his wife and their son Guo Xinzhen
Photo: CHINA DAILY / REUTERS
It is the end of a long search: after 24 years, a man in China found his son who was kidnapped when he was two.
Guo Gangtang has been looking for his child since the boy was kidnapped from the family home in a village in east China's Shandong Province in 1997.
He toured the country on his motorcycle, to which he had attached a picture of his son, and distributed leaflets.
It cost him so much money that he went into debt.
It was only in June that police in central China's Henan Province tracked down a man who was supposed to be Guo Gangtang's son, Xinhua News Agency reported.
A family reunion was arranged for Guo Gangtang, his wife, and son Guo Xinzhen on Sunday following a DNA test that confirmed the relationship.
The 26-year-old now works as a teacher.
Nationwide campaign to resolve unresolved cases
By the time that meeting took place, Guo Gangtang had covered a total of about 500,000 kilometers on the motorcycle.
His journey took him to most of China's provinces.
"Now that my son has been found, the future will only be happy," said the now 51-year-old, as the Guardian reported, citing local media.
The biological father does not seem to have any grudges towards the couple with whom Guo Xinzhen grew up.
He would consider them "relatives", he said.
In 2012, Guo Gangtang set up a website that he used to help dozens of other people find their family members, he told local media.
Guo Gangtang's own son was finally found after the Ministry of Public Security launched a nationwide campaign in January this year to resolve unsolved child abduction cases.
Child abductions have been common in China since the 1980s.
The background was the strict one-child policy of the communist leadership.
Many couples wanted males, and traffickers kidnapped boys and sold them to childless couples.
The government has now ended this restrictive birth policy and allows couples to have three children.
bbr / Reuters