Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

These tear-jerking images show two sisters who were finally reunited 27 years after they were both kidnapped as teenagers in the early 1990s.

Wu Juan, born Huang Jianmei, was whisked away with older sister Huang Xueying in 1992 when they were just 13 and 16 years old.

The pair were first-time visitors to the busy city of Liupanshui, in China’s south-western Guizhou Province, where a group comprising three men and one woman led them away from their father to take them sightseeing.

The sisters were soon separated and brought to Guangdong Province in South China, where they were promised job opportunities despite being minors.

Older Xueying was able to find her way home, but she never saw her younger sister again until the pair were reunited outside Liupanshui Railway Station on 16th November.

Xueying, who now lives with her family in Zhejiang Province in East China, said: “Those people told us they would take us sightseeing and then bring us back.

“Just like that, they put us on a train and we arrived in Guangdong a few days later.

“The pair of us were separated on our second day in Guangdong.

“Thinking about it now, I know it’s all too late, but we were each sold by human traffickers.

“I know my baby sister must have suffered a lot!”

Images of the touching reunion show the sisters unable to hold back their tears as they reconnect after 27 years.

As part of the reunion, Wu Juan, who was renamed after being sold to foster parents shortly after her kidnapping, returned to her hometown of Shuicheng County, where she learned that her mother and father had passed away 20 and 15 years earlier.

The 40-year-old mum of two sons said she often thought about going home but struggled because of her illiteracy.

Her eldest, Shi Jinfu, 25, helped set the wheels of her homecoming in motion when he sent a letter to Shuicheng police in the beginning of 2019 asking for their help.

On 22nd August, authorities then turned to not-for-profit Baobei Huijia (Baby Come Home), China’s hugely successful missing persons NGO which has helped reunite more than 2,000 families since its inception in 2007.

Volunteers from the charity spent weeks searching through the county until 22nd October, when a breakthrough led them to the village of Faqing, where officials said their local Huang family had two daughters kidnapped in the 1990s.

The surviving members of the Huang family contacted Xueying, who reconnected with her long-lost younger sister online.

Wu Juan, who now still resides in Guangdong, has promised to regularly return to Shuicheng, where she still has a younger sister and several cousins.

The authorities did not say whether they had any leads regarding the individuals who trafficked the sisters 27 years ago.