Abducted Toddler Found 24 Years Later - Abducted from a vegetable market when he was still a toddler, a Chinese man has been reunited with his father after 24 years. The year was 1991 when 4-year-old Sun Bin, the abducted toddler found 24 years later, was taken by child traffickers from his hometown in Sichuan province.
Sun Bin was sold almost 1,000 miles away from his home, to a childless couple in Jiangsu province on the country's eastern coast, in the city of Xuzhou, for £250, Chinese state media reported.
On Tuesday, the abducted toddler found 24 years later, was given the chance to see his 60-year-old biological father, Sun Youhong, once again. He also got to see a younger sister he had never met, according to CNN.
"The fact that they had paid the men who stole me from my real parents always meant there was a distance between us," said Sun Bin. "I admit I grew to love them for their kindness as years went by, but I knew that I had to try and find my real parents."
"When I was old enough to start to look for my real parents on my own, I didn't tell them at first because I didn't want to upset them," he added.
"I was happy. I was grateful," his father said after the abducted toddler was found 24 years later. "But I was also bitter."
The reunion between the abducted toddler found 24 years later and his father took place on Tuesday, at a police station in Chengdu. After a police officer introduced Sun Bin to his father, the 28-year-old couldn't help but drop to his knees and weep in his father's embrace.
"You're a man. Don't cry," said the father, according to state news agency Xinhua.
According to Sun Youhong, 45, after losing their son, he and his wife had dropped everything to search for him.
They reportedly spent four years travelling around China trying to find their son. They said they posted search notices around the area, with Sun Bin's mother travelling around other cities in Sichuan and neighboring provinces.
They eventually gave up in 1995 because they had a daughter. However, Lo, the mother, still never got over losing the abducted toddler found 24 years later.
In 1996, Sun Bin's mother was diagnosed with cancer. She died in 2011. Her husband said she died of a "broken heart".
"I gave up in 1995 because I need to spend time with the child I did have, and look after her health and provide for her," said Ku. "Before that though I travelled all over the country, every time there was a lead, followed it up. We found so many rescue children but we never found our son, and in 1995 we drew a line under it and stopped."
"I still have this photo that was taken of him four days before he vanished," Ku said at the reunion with his abducted toddler found 24 years later. "I had been working selling vegetables in a food market in Chengdu and had taken him with me. I was dealing with a customer and when I looked round he had gone."
"All I had left of him was this photo taken during the mid-autumn festival, when he was four years and 15-days-old," he added. "My wife and I travelled everywhere, and she became sick with worry over the years. She used to suffer from blackouts and I believe it was part of the reason that she eventually died before her time."
"To find our son had been my wife's biggest wish in life," Sun Youhong also told Xinhua earlier in the week after the abducted toddler was found 24 years later. "And days before she passed away she was constantly murmuring our son's name."
Sun Bin said he had always thought he was adopted. However, he didn't know where he originally came from. He never asked his adoptive parents how he ended up with them.
The abducted toddler was found 24 years later grew older, and he said his wish then to find his own family became stronger than ever. In 2010, he reportedly began looking for his biological parents.
In October 2014, he said he left a DNA sample with a local police station in Jiangsu. Eventually, after years of wondering, he received a phone call from the station saying a match was found.
Apart from the police, the abducted toddler found 24 years later was because of assistance from a Chinese web site called "Baby Come Home," a group which helps reunite separated relatives.
Sun Bin's father however that he was disappointed to learn that his child had been forced to work as an electrician when still a teen.
"I would have kept my son in school at the age of 15," he said.
The elder Sun had a phone interview with CNN and he accused his son's adoptive parents of breaking the law for having accepted a kidnapped child.
However, he said that "as long as my son comes back to live with me, I won't press charges against them."
The abducted toddler found 24 years later is still undecided whether he will leave his adoptive parents' coastal town home. He says he is still sad for his them despite becoming overjoyed with meeting his biological father and sister
"I don't want them to be punished, and I will look after and care for both my families," he said.
For now, Sun Bin is happy sleeping for the first time in 24 years in his biological father's home.
In China, child trafficking is still considered a major business, with traffickers seeking to gain profit from the growing demand for healthy babies from potential adoptive parents in their country and other parts of the world.
Boys are reportedly prized since they carry on the family line, therefore worth higher prices. Chinese police said that this week, they were able to rescue 37 newborn babies after busting a trafficking ring selling babies for up $13,000 each.
The case of the abducted toddler found 24 years later is still being investigated by police from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. They added that they have already arrested a suspect and accomplices who sold Sun Bin to his adoptive parents, reports the Daily Mail.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
