Wang Mingqing (left), a taxi driver, is reunited with Kang Ying, his daughter missing for 24 years, in Chengdu on Tuesday. She is escorted by her brother, whom she also had never met. [Photo provided to China Daily]
A Chengdu taxi driver and his wife were reunited on Tuesday with their missing daughter after 24 years as millions of people across China watched the emotional scenes play out on live-streaming websites.
"It was the first time I have called them mother and father since we regained contact," Kang Ying, the daughter, told a swarm of reporters after breaking a long, tearful embrace with her biological parents, Wang Mingqing and Liu Dengying.
At least four news outlets, including China Central Television, carried livestreams online showing Kang's journey "home" from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport and the parents anxiously waiting in their neighborhood.
"I've made sweet dumplings for our first meal, as it represents 'reunion'," a nervous Wang, 50, told China Daily hours earlier. "My wife has taken out the necklace her mother left her and will wear it specially for our daughter."
Later, the entire family－including Kang's younger brother and sister, whom she had never met, as well as her husband and two children－were shown crowded on a couch in her parents' home.
