China family reunite with abducted son after 24 years 

Guo Xinzhen was abducted when he was only two years old from Eastern China in 1997. Since then, his parents had been looking for their son across the country. 

However, this week, their prayers were finally answered when the search for Xinzhen finally came to an end. 

The Shandong province police from Liaocheng City released a statement on Monday which revealed that the now-adult Xinzhen had been living in the neighbouring Henan Province. 

Video footage of the reunion has been released on Sunday showing the family in a tight emotional embrace as his parents kept crying out, "We found you, you've come back" 

The two people who have confessed to kidnapping and trafficking Xinzhen have been arrested, reports CNN. 

Guo Xinzhen had been abducted near his home by an unfamiliar woman, his parents told police in 1997. 

Authorities collected blood, DNA samples and other evidence -- but with limited technology at the time, the case remained unsolved, the police said on their official social media account on Tuesday.

After his son went missing, Guo Gangtang embarked on a search across China riding a motorbike through nearly all of the vast country's provinces covering 500,000 kilometres (310,685 miles), according to Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua.

He carried little with him except a bag full of fliers, and a flag emblasoned with a picture of his son. He used up all his savings and racked up staggering debts, burning through 10 motorcycles on his long journey, Xinhua reported.

The story had gained so much attention across the country that it inspired the 2015 movie, "Lost and Love," starring Andy Lau. 

Over the 24 years, even though Gantang was unable to find his son, he helped track down 100 other abducted children and reunited them with their families. 

After stumbling across a new lead this year, the Ministry of Public Security was able to find a potential match to Xinzhen in Henan with the help of DNA analysis and facial feature comparison. 

Police detained a suspected child trafficker identified only as Hu, and his ex-girlfriend identified as Tang, according to the police's social media post. The two confessed after interrogation saying Tang had abducted Guo Xinzhen in 1997. She then met up with Hu, and the then-couple took a bus back to Henan, where they sold the child.

Details of Guo Xinzhen's upbringing were not shared with the public nor who he was sold to. 

Child abduction and trafficking have long been a rampant problem in China, with many parents never finding their missing children. Activists and experts say the problem was exacerbated by China's one-child policy, which has been relaxed in recent years. In May, the government announced it would begin allowing couples to have up to three children.

Since the turn of the century, the government has stepped up efforts to curb the problem, including launching a national DNA database in 2009 and an online anti-trafficking platform in 2016. These have helped authorities track down more than 4,700 missing children in the past five years, according to Xinhua.