Man reunites with family with Google Maps

Luo Gang no longer wakes up crying after a dream about a little boy in a red embroidered sweater, with an image of a swan, being taken by strangers. That dream haunted him for more than two decades.

The child in Luo's dream is Luo, who was abducted at the age of 5 from his hometown to Sanming, Fujian province.

But he found his way home with the help of a good memory and modern technology, specifically Google Maps.

The 28-year-old had been living with his "adoptive grandparents" after his "foster parents" died when he was seven.

Although the "grandparents" treated him well, Luo said the desire to find his birth family and his hometown became increasingly strong as he got older.

Over the years, hometown scenes of roads, rivers and rice paddies kept flashing into his mind, Luo said, adding he forced himself to think of every picture he remembered since the age of 10 in case they faded from memory.

The thing that Luo remembered most clearly was a set of two arch bridges because he often played games with friends there and once he fell from a bridge and injured his back.

Last October, after a friend showed him the website www.baobeihuijia.com, a news portal aimed at reuniting families with missing children, Luo posted a roughly-drawn map that contained every landmark he remembered about his hometown, especially the two bridges.

He also listed all the facts he could recall, including his birth date, the background of family members, the dialect that resembles that of Sichuan province or Chongqing and that one of the bridges was damaged by a flood.

Luo's article quickly drew the attention of the website's staff members, who assembled a team of volunteers to help Luo pinpoint his birthplace.

Wang Xuebing, a volunteer helping Luo, said he was surprised by the information Luo provided, especially the vivid map depicting the layout of the town.

"I didn't expect that anyone at such a tender age could remember that many things about their hometown," Wang said, adding the information did help volunteers rule out several places.

In April a volunteer based in Chongqing discovered that a couple in Linshui county, Guang'an, Sichuan province, lost a son decades ago.

Luo then used the satellite view on Google Maps to look for recognizable features.

Suddenly, the arch bridges in the village of Yao Jiaba came into view.

Volunteers headed to the village and learnt that a couple, Huang Qingyong and Dai Jianfang, lost a son some 20 years ago.

On May 3, Luo went to Chongqing for a DNA test, which identified the couple as Luo's biological parents.

According to the Chengdu-based newspaper Huaxi Metropolis Daily, both Huang and Dai were overwhelmed with relief and joy at the reunion on May 9.

"After my son was taken, my heart was broken and I had problems eating and sleeping, worrying about his suffering,'' the newspaper quoted Dai as saying.

Luo Gang's real name was Huang Jun, the eldest son of the couple, who have three children.

Luo, a former construction worker in Sanming, is now helping his birth parents with farm work.

Luo planned to stay with his parents for a while and later take them to Sanming to find a new job and start a fresh life.

"I also need to go back to look after my adoptive grandparents there," Luo said.