ANKARA

A Chinese man reunited with his family 33 years after abduction thanks to a hand-drawn map of his hometown that he drew based on his early childhood memories, the China Daily reported.

Li Jingwei was only 4 years old when he was abducted in his hometown Zhaotong of southwestern Yunnan province. He was later taken to a city, Lankao -- 1,600 kilometers (994 miles) away from his hometown.

Despite his early age, Li was aware of the whole abduction process and he often drew pictures of his hometown in a bid not to forget his memories.

In mid-December, Li, encouraged by the news of abducted children reuniting with their families, decided to post a video on a video-sharing platform in search of his family and also demonstrated the hand-drawn map portraying the landscape of his hometown.

Although Li thought the process of reuniting with his family would take several years, he surprisingly began to get clues about his mother, while the police force used the hints and found the mother and confirmed her identity through a DNA test.

“When I saw my family on the first day of the new year, I felt like I was reborn,” he said, also meeting his siblings.