After 24-year search, taxi driver is finally reunited with his long lost daughter

Even after more than two decades, Wang Mingqing and his wife never gave up hope on seeing their daughter again

On Tuesday, a father and mother were reunited with the daughter that disappeared from their life more than 24 years ago, thanks to a steadfast search in which they never gave up hope of seeing their child again.

Wang Mingqing says that one day in 1994 he and his wife were hawking fruit on the street in Chengdu, dealing with a large crowd of customers, when they looked up to find that their daughter had vanished.

Afterward, Wang did everything he could think of to get his daughter back. He contacted the police, put up missing persons signs on the street, and searched the city’s children’s shelters and hospital. All to no avail.

Finally, three years ago, he became a driver for ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, hoping that his new occupation would improve his slim odds of ever seeing his daughter again. When he was working, Wang would give each one of his passengers a card with information about his lost daughter, telling them to share it on WeChat.

Because Wang did not have a photo of his lost daughter, he had to use a picture of his other daughter when she was young in the leaflets, explaining that they had looked very similar.

Last year, Wang’s desperate search made headlines across China. At the time, he estimated that he had handed out cards to nearly 5,000 passengers.

“My biggest wish right now is that someday my daughter will sit down in my car, and shout ‘Dad!’” Wang said at the time. When a reporter asked him what he would say to her, Wang grew solemn. “I’m sorry, Daddy didn’t live up to his responsibilities as a father,” he sighed.

Unfortunately, child kidnapping is a serious problem in China. Wang says that after his search went viral, a number of young women reached out to him, believing that they may be his lost daughter. However, DNA tests ruled out each one.

Finally, a break in the case occurred earlier this year. Moved by Wang’s story, a police sketch artist took it upon himself to produce an image of what Wang’s daughter might look like today.

That drawing was circulated on social media and eventually found its way to Kang Ying, a 27-year-old mother living more than 3,000 kilometers away from Chengdu in Panshi city in China’s northeast, who couldn’t help but notice that the image looked very much like her.

Kang contacted Wang and then went to the police for a DNA test. On Sunday, results of that test confirmed that Kang was Wang’s daughter, Wang Qifeng. Quickly, she made plans to fly to Chengdu to reunite with her long lost family.

After finding out that he was finally going to get to see his daughter after more than two decades, Wang burst into tears.

Kang told reporters that she too had always been searching for her biological family. Her adoptive family had told her that she was found on the side of the road in Chengdu as a child. She grew up in a Sichuan town not knowing that only 20 kilometers away her birth parents were living and searching for her constantly.

“The whole world said that I don’t have a mother, but I do have one!” Kang said after arriving in Chengdu today, along with her husband and daughter, flanked by police and reporters.

In the middle of a massive media scrum on the street, a father and mother were reunited on Tuesday afternoon in Chengdu with a daughter that they had not seen in 24 years. According to media reports, Kang’s first words to her parents were: “Dad, Mom, I’ve come home!”

You can watch a video below showing Kang’s emotional ride from the airport and reunion with her mother:

And a longer video of the incredible moment:

Afterward, they all went back to the relative privacy of their home for a long-overdue family photo:

[Images via The Cover]