Zhang Yunpeng, 28, hugged his father, Zhang Jiucheng, as they broke down in a tearful reunion in Huinan County, Jilin Province, China.
“After more than 20 years, I saw you finally,” the father said, local outlet Jimu News reported. “Dad, I love you,” his son replied in broken Chinese.
Zhang Yunpeng went missing at Shenyang Railway Station in Liaoning Province in 2001 after his uncle briefly left him to buy ice cream.
He was later sent to a local welfare center where he was given the name Shen Huabai. In 2005, a Canadian couple adopted him and took him to Canada. Three months later, they divorced and neither wanted to care for him.
Local authorities then placed Zhang with a homestay family that gave him little attention as they had already had nine children. Zhang’s father was in prison when he went missing. His mother later left his father and remarried.
Zhang said he had to make money on his own to survive after graduating from secondary school.
In 2025, he contacted a relative searching organization in China, Baby Returning Home, after seeing successful reunions shared on social media. The group asked Gao Yang, a Chinese PhD student in Canada, to assist Zhang. “When I saw him for the first time, he looked miserable and was extremely thin,” Gao said.
Zhang’s blood sample was submitted to China’s national DNA database and several days later, his biological parents were identified.
“The moment I saw his picture, I knew he was my son. He looks exactly like me. I do not need to do a double-check appraisal,” Zhang Jiucheng said.
Before meeting in person, Zhang’s father transferred 10,000 yuan (US$1,400) to him. “I will try my best to compensate him. I will give the best things to him,” the father said.
Zhang has not reunited with his biological mother, who lives in another province. Gao said Zhang, who holds Canadian citizenship, will return to Canada in a few weeks due to a visa issue and remains uncertain about his future plans.
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