Emotional moment father reunites with his daughter 13 years after she went missing (Photo)

An 18-year-old girl has been reunited with her long-lost father after being separated from him at the age of 5 in China then being adopted by an American family.

Kylee Bowers, known as Liang Jinglang by birth, went missing on the streets of Zhongshan in southern China in 2005 and was later adopted by an American couple in 2012. A positive DNA helped reunite the young woman with her birth family in China 13 years after she went missing when she was five years old. 

The girl, now 18, was welcomed by her birth parents and three siblings in Guangdong on Sunday, July 1, after flying 7,780 miles to her birthplace from her current home in Chicago.

Video footage of the emotional reunion released by the Shunde police department shows an anxious Mr Liang Hua waiting for his daughter at the arrival hall of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. The moment he spotted her, the pair hugged each other and broke down in tears.

Bowers got lost when she was trying to find her father in the Ronggui district of Zhongshan city in May 2005, when she was only five. Her father had left her under the care of her uncle, who lived in Dongfeng town less than 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) away. An elderly woman found the little girl wandering the street alone and took her to the police station. However, Bowers could not understand the officers’ questions since they spoke a different dialect. She was then sent to Zhongshan Children’s Welfare Institute where she was given the name Zhong Fengmin, according to Southern Metropolis Daily.

Seven years later, an American couple adopted the girl, gave her a new name and a new home in faraway Chicago.

All the while, Mr Liang and his wife, Wu Qinmei desperately searched for their daughter, all to no avail. Bowers also began searching for her birth parents since 2014, posting a search notice with her information on a Chinese website called Baby Back Home, a non-profit organisation that helps families track down lost children.

Back at home in Guangdong, Mr Liang read several news reports about the case and thought the girl matched the description of his lost baby daughter. He went on the Baby Back Home website and was surprised to find a picture of his missing daughter on the forum.

The two started chatting on WeChat on May 3, with Mr Liang trying to get Bowers to remember bits and pieces of her childhood. Her parents immediately reported the discovery to the local police, who conducted a test that matched Mr Liang and Ms Wu’s DNA with the sample Bowers left in a database before her adoption.