Never lose hope: sometimes time can hold unexpected surprises. Guo Gangtang knows something about this, a man of Chinese origin who after 24 years and 500,000 kilometers cycling throughout the country managed to find his son kidnapped when he was two years old by human traffickers in front of his house in Shandong province.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, the police were able to trace the identity of her son using the DNA test. Two suspects, according to a report by the Global Times, were later tracked down and then arrested: “they planned to kidnap the child with the intention of selling him for money,” China News reports. Local media said Mr. Guo’s son was found in his home province (Henan).
After his son was kidnapped in 1997, Mr. Guo traveled to more than 20 provinces of the country on a bicycle to track him down.
Carrying his son’s photo around, the man spent his life savings on his mission, sleeping under bridges and begging for alms.
While searching for his son, he also became an important member of missing persons organizations in China and helped at least seven parents to reunite with their kidnapped children. Child abduction and trafficking has been a problem in China for decades.