No parent would want to be separated from their children.
A child is considered one of the best, most precious gifts a parent could ever have. Even as they grow old and no matter how difficult it is to raise one, they will always be their parents’ pride and joy.
But what if you lose your child in a snap?
As a parent, your initial action will always be to do anything and everything to look for your child. Sleepless nights will haunt you until you find them. You will go through all lengths just to find your child.
This is what this father in China did to find his son.
Guo Gangtang, a Chinese farmer, embarked on such a journey. His son, Guo Zhen, was abducted in their family home in 1997. Back then, child trafficking and kidnapping were widespread in China, especially when they still had the one-child rule and families would prefer a son for a child.
Guo Zhen was two and half years at that time.
When the incident was still fresh, around 500 volunteers tried to help Guo Gangtang look for Guo Zhen around eastern Shandong province. However, their search proved to be futile.
This did not step Guo Zhen, and he was very determined to find his son.
He journeyed across China on his motorbike.
He drove all over 31 Chinese provinces and regions (except Tibet and Xinjiang), searching for his missing son. This was not easy for Guo Gangtang, and this journey proved to cost him and his family a lot.
He covered about 310,700 miles.
With that, he used up ten motorcycles, and he even got several traffic accidents. He sent out flyers and followed leads in his journey whenever a local will tell him any piece of information. All these efforts depleted their family savings.
But all that would never amount to finding his son.
Guo Gangtang said in an interview with China Central Television:
“I thought that maybe there was a glimmer of hope of finding my son if I went to look for him. The kidnapper would have never sent my son back. If I stayed at home, there would have been no chance.”
After 24 years, he was reunited with his son.
The Chinese police found his son through a national DNA database. They conducted DNA tests to prove that they matched the right son to the correct parent. Their reunion is nothing short of a miracle.
Guo Zhen was living in the neighboring Henan province, not far away from home.
Now 26 years old, Guo Zhen is already a teacher. The moment he got reunited with his family, there was no dry eye in the room. Parents, son, and other relatives all were in tears to have finally found each other.
This was not the only good news that came out from this story.
It turns out that the years of Guo Gangtang’s journey allowed him to cross paths with other children who were abducted. In those years, he was able to help return 100 missing children to their parents.
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