text: A taxi driver from southwest China who spent 24 years searching for his missing daughter will finally be reunited with her on Tuesday after she responded to his appeal for information. 
   
   Wang Mingqing and his wife Liu Chengying briefly took their eyes off their daughter Qifeng, who wandered off while they were busy running their fruit stall in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, in January 1994. 
   
   The girl’s father told the West China Daily: “It was only five minutes and then my daughter was gone.” 
   
   The couple abandoned their stall to search for their daughter, but for years their efforts appeared to be in vain. 
   
   Although the couple went on to have a second child, they never gave up looking for the girl. 
   
   In 2015 Wang became a taxi driver. When he noticed how much his customers were using their phones, he enlisted their help by asking them to post appeals on social media in the hope his missing daughter might see them. 
   
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   He also printed and distributed 10,000 fliers that outlined the details of the case, including a description of how the young girl looked when she went missing in January 1994 and a local newspaper also published a report about his appeal. 
   
   Over the past three years Wang had been contacted by scores of young women who suspected they might be his daughter, but DNA tests ruled this out. 
   
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   There are no official statistics about how many children go missing in China each year, but it is a long-standing problem in the country. 
   
   Every year tens of thousands are believed to be kidnapped, many of whom are then sold on for adoption. 
   
   Two weeks ago a 27-year-old woman in Jilin province contacted the Wangs via social media after reading about his search and realising she might be the girl in question. 
   
   The woman had been told she was adopted as a child and grew up under the name Kang Ying in a town only 20 kilometres (12 miles) away from her birth parents. 
   
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   With the help of a non-governmental organisation that helps reunite parents with their missing children, the woman, now a mother of two young children, took a DNA test that on Sunday confirmed she was Wang’s daughter. 
   
   She is flying to Chengdu on Tuesday to meet her birth parents. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Kang Ying, 27, was reunited with her mother after 24 years 
   
   A Chinese couple have been reunited with their daughter who went missing 24 years ago. 
   
   Wang Mingqing and his wife Liu Dengying had looked for Qifeng since she disappeared aged three in 1994. 
   
   His tireless search included becoming a taxi driver, in the hope he might one day pick her up as a passenger. 
   
   His daughter made contact earlier this year after coming across an online post about him. At the tearful reunion he hugged her and said: "Daddy loves you." 
   
   The incredible story has swept China, where many are celebrating the reunion. 
   
   Wang Mingqing and Liu Dengying were fruit sellers, selling their wares at a roadside stall in the south-western city of Chengdu. 
   
   On one particularly busy day, Mr Wang ran out of change, and briefly went to a neighbouring stall to change money for a customer. 
   
   When he was back minutes later, his daughter was nowhere to be found, Chinese media reported. 
   
   Image copyright CFP Image caption For years Wang Mingqing handed out leaflets appealing for information about his missing daughter 
   
   Mr Wang and his wife spent years searching for her in the city and surrounding areas, taking out advertisements in newspapers and setting up online appeals. The couple, who have another daughter and a son, never left Chengdu, in the hope that Qifeng would find her way back to them. 
   
   In 2015, Mr Wang decided to broaden the search by signing up as a driver with ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing. 
   
   He put up a large sign appealing for information on his rear window, and also gave out cards with information about Qifeng to every passenger he ferried. 
   
   Mr Wang did not have a picture of Qifeng as a toddler so he used a picture of his other daughter in his leaflets, as they looked similar. 
   
   His unique method gained attention from the Chinese media. "One day, my daughter may just be the person sitting in my car!" he was quoted as saying. 
   
   Image copyright Thecover.cn Image caption Kang Ying flew to Chengdu with her husband and children to meet her parents 
   
   Image copyright Thecover.cn Image caption Supporters gave her bouquets of flowers 
   
   Over the years Chinese police identified several women who could have been Qifeng, but DNA tests showed they were not his daughter. 
   
   But a breakthrough finally came late last year, when a police sketch artist read about Mr Wang and decided to help by producing a drawing of what Qifeng might look like as an adult. The picture was circulated online. 
   
   Thousands of kilometres away, on the other side of the country, a woman called Kang Ying saw the picture - and was shocked by how much it resembled her. 
   
   She had been raised by adoptive parents in a nearby town just 20km (12 miles) away, Chinese media reported. 
   
   Her adoptive family had told her that she was found on the side of a road in Chengdu as a child, Shanghaiist said. 
   
   Image copyright TheCover.Cn Image caption Kang Ying's family greeted her with signs with messages including "welcome back, child" and "sister, I really miss you" 
   
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   She contacted Mr Wang earlier this year, and found that she shared some unusual traits with his missing daughter, including a small scar on her forehead and a tendency to get nauseous whenever she cried. 
   
   They quickly arranged for a DNA test. This time, the result was positive - Mr Wang had finally found his long-lost child. 
   
   On Monday, Mr Wang and Kang Ying spoke for the first time via a voice messenger app, thecover.cn reported (in Chinese). 
   
   "From now on, Dad is here - you don't need to worry about anything - Dad will help you," Mr Wang said. 
   
   He also shared the news with his friends on social media, telling them: "My efforts of 24 years were not wasted! My daughter has been found - thank you everyone." 
   
   Image copyright Thecover.cn Image caption Kang Ying's younger sister (left) holds up her new-found niece 
   
   On Tuesday, the pair were reunited in person when Kang Ying, who lives in northern Jilin province, flew to Chengdu with her husband, son and daughter. 
   
   Kang Ying and her mother, Liu Dengyeng, hugged each other tightly and cried as they were reunited - and were quickly joined by the rest of the family. 
   
   Kang Ying told reporters tearfully: "The whole world told me I didn't have a mother - but I do!" thecover.cn reported. 
   
   "I can't tell you how much hope, disappointment and despair we have gone through these past 24 years. Now we can finally meet again," Mr Wang was quoted as saying in the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper. ||||| Taxi driver finds daughter after 24-year search 
   
   A taxi driver in Sichuan Province has been reunited with his long-lost daughter after 24 years thanks to a news article detailing his relentless search. 
   
   
   
   Police DNA tests on Monday confirmed Wang Mingqing to be the father of Kang Ying, who had disappeared in 1994. 
   
   
   
   The family is to be reunited today for the first time in 24 years, Huaxi Metropolitan Daily reported. 
   
   
   
   Kang, now 27, was found as a child on the side of a road in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. 
   
   
   
   At least that was what her adopted family had told her, the paper reported. 
   
   
   
   Wang recalled taking his three-year-old daughter to their family fruit stand in Chengdu back in October 1994. 
   
   
   
   He turned his back momentarily to make change for a customer, only to find his daughter - then named Wang Qifeng - had disappeared. 
   
   
   
   "Our daughter only knew our first names and did not know where we lived," said her mother Liu Dengying, in tears. 
   
   
   
   "For the next six months, I would walk and my husband would ride his bike looking for her. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack." 
   
   
   
   Years later, Wang hit the pavement again. He became a driver for Didi Chuxing, a China's Uber equivalent, in the hopes he would one day pick up someone who recognized his daughter, passing out cards with his daughter's information and photo to passengers. 
   
   
   
   In 2015, Wang's touching story attracted the attention of Huaxi Metropolitan Daily. The article gained traction and was later picked up by CCTV. 
   
   
   
   The news miraculously caught Kang's eye while living in Northeast China, Jilin Province - nearly 2,800 kilometers away from where she was lost in Chengdu. 
   
   
   
   Kang, now a mother of two, contacted Wang on March 16 in the hopes her own search for her biological family would finally come to an end. 
   
   
   
   Police on Monday said a DNA test confirmed Wang's parentage of Kang. 
   
   
   
   She is scheduled to arrive in Chengdu today and be reunited with her father, mother and a younger sister who she has never met. 
   
   
   
   Huaxi Metropolis Daily 
   
  
target: – A small scar on the forehead. A habit of feeling nauseous when she cried. These are traits that a woman named Kang Ying and a child named Qifeng shared—helping to prove the two are one and the same. The BBC reports on the 24-year search for Qifeng, who disappeared from her parents' roadside fruit stand in Chengdu city in January 1994; she was just 3. Wang Mingqing and wife Liu Dengying spent more than two decades searching for their girl, through newspaper ads and online posts. They remained in Chengdu, hoping it would increase the chances that Qifeng would find them, and in 2015, Wang began driving for the Uber-like Didi Chuxing and spreading the word. His car contained information about his search, passengers were given information about his daughter, and the South China Morning Post reports he asked riders to post about his search on social media. Then, a break, by way of a police sketch artist. The artist heard about the search and offered to create an age progression drawing showing what an adult Qifeng might look like—and, in a province far to the north, Kang Ying saw it and thought it looked a whole lot like her. She reached out to Yang in mid-March, per Global News, and a DNA test was arranged for; it proved she was Qifeng, and the family was reunited on Tuesday. The Morning Post reports Kang grew up 12 miles from Chengdu, with parents who told her they had adopted her. (This missing 9-year-old was found thanks to a reality TV show.)