Chinese man finds biological mum using a hand-drawn map 33 years after abduction
- The man was born in Yunnan and was abducted by a neighbour before being trafficked to Henan province nearly 2,000km away
- The man had spent a lifetime trying to keep alive the memory of his hometown
A 37-year-old Chinese man who was abducted at the age of four said on Tuesday he found his biological mother by drawing a map of his home village strictly from memory.
01:40
Map of childhood village leads abducted man in China to find his biological family 33 years later
Li, who has his own family now, provided a blood sample to the authorities and began drawing what he could remember of the home village.
He asked for clues online about where it could be, and the police eventually narrowed it down to a village near the mountainous city in Yunnan named Zhaotong.
The authorities found a woman who was probably the mother, and a DNA test using the blood later confirmed Li was her son. The two will meet on January 1, 2022.
Li’s father is no longer alive, according to local authorities.
Li said he was inspired to begin looking for his biological family after learning about the high-profile stories of Guo Gantang and Sun Haiyang, two famous abduction cases that ended in reunions in 2021.