Map drawn from memory helps man kidnapped 30 years ago find home

Li Jingwei was just four years old when he was abducted from his home and sold into a child trafficking ring back in 1989.

He was then sold to family living almost 2000 kilometres away.

Emotional vision of the reunion has shown the moment the pair met for the first time in over three decades.

Mr Li removed his mother’s COVID-19 face mask to examine her face before recognising her as his mum, breaking down in tears.

“Thirty-three years of waiting, countless nights of yearning, and finally a map hand-drawn from memory, this is the moment of perfect release after 13 days,” Mr Li wrote on his Douyin profile.

“Thank you, everyone who has helped me reunite with my family.”

Mr Li was abducted near the south-western city of Zhaotong 1989 and sold into a family thousands of 1800 kilometres away.

Since moving out of home, Mr Li was unable to trace his origins via his adoptive parents or through DNA tracing services, so he took to the internet.

“I’m a child who’s finding his home. I was taken to Henan by a bald neighbour around 1989, when I was about four-years-old,” he said in the video, which was shared thousands of times.

“This is a map of my home area that I have drawn from memory,” he said holding up a rough guide of the village, which included features like a building he believed to be a school, a bamboo forest, and a small pond.

It is estimated that between 20,000 to 70,000 children are abducted in China per year, where sons in particular are highly sought after.