A tearful reunion 24 years in the making, a couple in southwest China's Chengdu has been reunited with their daughter, who went missing when she was three years old. In all their years apart, the parents never gave up, with the father even going so far as becoming a taxi driver in the hope she'd one day hop into his cab. Tao Yuan has the details.

An event this family feared would never happen. In 1994, Wang Mingqing and his wife lost their three-year old daughter in a moment of negligence. Today, they reunited. CGTN first met Wang Mingqing last year. He had made a name for himself as "the father who never gave up". He even took a job as a cab driver to create awareness over his daughter's disappearance. This is where the incident happened, on a busy pedestrian street in the capital of Sichuan province, Chengdu.

WANG MINGQING "We were selling bananas here. We turned around to look for change. When we turned back, our little girl was gone."

That little girl is now 28 years old, and a proud mother of two. Kang Ying said although she grew up in a loving family in a nearby county, she always dreamed of finding her biological parents. And as Wang's heart-breaking story spread through social media, she decided to give it a try. When they had their first video chat, both described the moment as "magical".

KANG YING "I never believed I'd know with just one look. Now I do. It was as though something struck me."

A DNA test confirmed their father-daughter relationship.

TAO YUAN CHENGDU "This is a story that came to a happy ending. But for every family reunion like this one, thousands of other parents are still waiting for their children to come home."

According to estimates, at least 10-thousand children are kidnapped in China every year. Downstairs from Wang's apartment, other desperate parents are now putting up posters, hoping the media exposure can help them find their children who were so-horribly snatched from their care.

"I hope my son is also trying to find us. I won't ask him to come home. All we want is to know is that he's doing okay."

Kang Ying is now living in her husband's hometown in northern China. But she wants nothing more now than quality time with her biological parents.

KANG YING "Many things have changed. It won't be easy. But I'm going to find a way to be with my parents forever."

To make up for the 24 years that's lost between them. Tao Yuan, CGTN, Chengdu.