In many emotional films, family reunions are often shot in frames depicting people holding their breath, tears being shed, and children together with parents, sisters and brothers hugging tightly after long separations.

Yet this touching kind of scenario became reality in Hangzhou City, the capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, where thousands of people gathered in search of their lost kin. Many of these separations were triggered by natural disasters that hit Zhejiang and the neighboring Jiangsu Province some 50 years ago, forcing impoverished families to send their kids away. The children were sent everywhere from northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to southern Wenzhou City in Zhejiang. Half a century later, the separated members were still longing to see each other. They posted or broadcast notices for a lost family via media sources and joined in the search.

Hangzhou's event took place a few days before China's Mid-Autumn Festival, on the fifteenth day of the eighth Chinese lunar calendar (September 25, this year). According to Chinese tradition, families should reunite on that day.

Wei Xinmei, a 56-year-old woman from central China's Henan Province, was one of the lucky members; she found her father and elder sister during the event. They had been separated for 48 years. "I'm always longing to return home," said Wei. The woman was adopted at the age of seven when her family struggled with poverty in Jiangsu. Her mother sent her daughter away for good. But her decision caused the family years of sadness, separating mother and daughter forever.

Wei and her family kept moving around as the years passed. When Wei settled in Henan, her family moved to Zhejiang – they completely lost touch with each other. But after more than 40 years of darkness, hope flickered one day when the family's Zhejiang neighbors got a glimpse of Wei's photo during a family search event; surprised, they discerned through the picture a replica of Wei's mother. They contacted Wei and the family members called each other for the first time. When Wei was ready to see her reunited family in Hangzhou, her heart sank as she realized that she would never meet her mother again. Her 83-year-old father told her that Wei's mother passed away two years ago, and had died yearning to see her daughter.

The one-day event held in Hangzhou Stadium was the biggest of its kind. At least nine people there reunited with their families.

(China.org.cn by Wu Jin, September 25, 2007)