Man finds his biological mother after 33 years thanks to a map he drew as a child (+ VIDEO)

Li Jingwei's story seems far too incredible to be real, yet there is nothing made up in the story of this 37-year-old man who found his biological mother after searching for her for thirty-three long years.

Li was kidnapped in 1989 when he was only 4 years old. Kidnappings were quite common in China at the time, mainly because of the draconian "one child" law. Male children were considered more precious than girls, especially in rural areas and for this reason, male babies were often kidnapped and sold to other families. Little Li was amongst these unfortunate children who were snatched from their biological parents' arms at an early age. The most incredible part of this story, however, is that Li was able to find his mother - 33 years later, and thanks to a map he drew from memory.

via Youtube / 大象新闻

After many years had passed, Li no longer remembered the name of his village, his mother or anyone else, but he still remembered some details of the places where he had lived. After he was kidnapped, Li found solace in drawing his village layout and map of the surrounding area - he did it almost every day and, fortunately, those memories had remained intact in his mind. Today, he is an adult, who has raised a family, but who at the same time wanted to find his family again - hoping to hug his mother once again. He wondered if  "someone was still looking for me?" and with a lot of patience he has answered his question. After drawing the map of his village that he remembered, Li shared it on social media and told his story.

"I am a child looking for a home" he wrote in his post, "I remember the trees, forests, rocks and roads of my village and I drew everything on this map". We know that the internet is a special place if you know how to exploit its' potential and Li has managed to find his village of origin thanks to the help of users who looked at his map and recognised the place. Little by little, the pieces of the puzzle came together, and DNA tests finally gave the definitive results. On December 28, 2021 it was confirmed that a woman from the village of Zhaotong was Li's mother. Even the Ministry of Public Security of China contributed to the search.

And so, mother and son were able to embrace each other again after 33 long years: "My mother cried as soon as we spoke on the phone. After a video call, I recognized her at first glance. My mother and I have the same lips, and even the same teeth".

All of this was possible not only thanks to Li's determination to find his parents, but to his excellent memory and the map he was able to draw. A truly wonderful story with a happy ending!