A man has finally been reunited with his parents after being ki‌dn‌ap‌pe‌d as a child 31 years ago in Guizhou, China.

The man, Qin Yujie, whose given name was Cheng Xueping, was sn‌atc‌h‌ed from a construction site where his parents, Cheng Jiguang and Gaolingzhen, were working in 1988.

After realizing that their 3-year-old kid was gone, the parents spent many hours that day looking for him, eventually traveling all over China to no avail, according to Western China City Daily via South China Morning Post.

About 31 years later, Qin has finally been reunited with his biological parents in their home at Chengjiawan as hundreds of people from surrounding villages in Sichuan gathered around to welcome him with banners and firecrackers.

“I have been looking for you for years and couldn’t find a clue,” the man told his weeping parents during their emotional reunion on February 22, Friday. Qin’s parents were also able to meet his wife and children for the first time.

After their failed attempt to search for Qin all over China, the family decided to provide DNA samples to a national database that the p‌‌olic‌e established to help find ‌abd‌u‌ct‌ed children. It took a‌uth‌or‌itie‌s three decades to find out the truth about his case, in which Qin had been abducted and sold to a village in Hebei.

Qin said that he felt different from the local children growing up in his new home, noting that he pronounced some words differently. He later realized that the father he knew was never his real father, and began searching for his real family.

It wasn’t until 2018 when the DNA Qin’s family provided to the p‌ol‌ice‌ was matched. The man reportedly gave his DNA sample to his employers, and that sample was a match to the same one that the Chengs gave to au‌tho‌rit‌ies decades ago. Sichuan p‌oli‌c‌e were eventually notified of the match.

P‌oli‌ce‌ had to track down the Chengs to provide new DNA samples, making sure that the match was accurate. In February, the test came back and confirmed that Qin was their missing child.

Images screenshot via YouTube / 澎湃新闻