Guo Gangtang has set a high bar for fathers everywhere. A 51-year-old woman from China’s Shandong province has spent almost half of her life desperately searching for her missing child.
In September 1997, Guo Xinzhen was only 2.5 years old, playing near home, when he was snatched by a woman he knew.
Police, 500 volunteers and the family of the heart-wounded child combed the area, searching bus depots, train stations and places where he may have passed.
Although authorities collected evidence and followed leads, they were unable to find the child. Unsatisfied with the results, the devoted father embarks on the journey of a lifetime, driving across China by motorbike, taking with him little to describe his abducted man other than those who fly with him.
He rode for many years, crossing all 31 Chinese provinces and territories except Tibet and Xinjiang. According to Xinhuanet, he covered more than 300,000 miles, went through 10 motorbikes and rode into millions of yuan in debt.
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While traveling, he displayed a flag with his son’s picture on the back of his motorbike, hoping to find the missing child.
Guo’s relentless search touched many hearts, and eventually inspired a 2015 film called “Love and Lost.”
Twenty four years have passed, still there is no sign of his son. But his efforts were not in vain: Gove became a hero to other families, personally helping more than 100 other kidnapped children find their way home as he followed leads and searched for his missing man. of
In January, the Ministry of Public Security launched a campaign to redouble efforts to reunite abducted children with their families. So far, police have located and recovered more than 2,600 missing children, as well as arrested more than 372 suspects this year alone.
In June, using a DNA database and comparing facial features, the ministry found Guo Zinzhen.
On Sunday, Go finally wrapped his arms around his right-hand son. According to CNN, police found him living in nearby Hainan province.
“We found you, come back,” cried the family.
“We are really happy for the family, and we have done what we have been trying to do for many years,” said Tong Bishan, deputy director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau, Ministry of Public Security.
“What impressed us was that, as the father of a kidnapped child, Guo Gangtang has actively participated in volunteer anti-kidnapping activities over the past 24 years in the search for his own child, and other Continues to provide information to abducted children…”
A couple was arrested in 1997 after confessing to abducting and selling the boy.
Not every father in Goo’s shoes has a happy ending…