Booking flight tickets, buying local specialties, and making silk banners... These are the main tasks Zhang Jiping and Cheng Jin of Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, have been busy with these past few days.

　　In the late 1950s and early 1960s, China experienced rare natural disasters. Some orphanages in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places fell into a predicament of food shortage, and the rations of more than 3,000 young, sickly orphans became a problem.

　　The kind and vast grasslands of Inner Mongolia opened their arms to them. More than 3,000 orphans came to Inner Mongolia and became "Children of the State," writing a heartwarming story known as "Three Thousand Orphans Enter Inner Mongolia." Zhang Jiping and Cheng Jin are two of them.

　　Zhang Jiping has little memory of his own origins; he later learned that he was less than 2 years old when he arrived.

　　"At the time they didn't know our names, so they gave us 'Children of the State' numbers. I was No. 100, so everyone called me the No. 100 child," Zhang Jiping said. His adoptive father was a farmer and his adoptive mother a homemaker. The couple were especially hardworking and treated him as their own, neither neglecting nor spoiling him, just as other parents treated their children.

　　When Zhang Jiping was about 10, his adoptive parents told him about his origins. After that came school, work, marriage, and children... Zhang Jiping has lived in Hohhot for 64 years.

　　After his adoptive parents passed away, Zhang Jiping once thought about tracing his roots, but in the vast sea of people it was nearly impossible. In fact, most self-initiated searches for relatives are extremely difficult; searching solely by physical appearance is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

　　The turning point came in 2021, when public security organs carried out the "Reunion" campaign in depth, relying on the national DNA database for combating child trafficking to help separated people find their families.

　　Not only that, Zhang Jiping was also fortunate to meet Liang Yinmei, who is likewise a "Child of the State."

　　In the autumn of 1960, Liang Yinmei came to Hohhot from a Shanghai orphanage at the age of one and a half. Frail, she suffered from tuberculosis and osteomalacia, and her adoptive parents took her everywhere seeking medical treatment.

　　"My parents went without food and clothing to give me the best, caring for me in every possible way. I will always remember this great love that transcends region, ethnicity and blood ties," Liang Yinmei said.

　　As the chief liaison for "Children of the State," Liang Yinmei often organizes gatherings of "Children of the State" living in different leagues and cities of Inner Mongolia, and has long been collecting information on the "three thousand orphans" of that year to help them find their relatives. Under her leadership, the children who came to Inner Mongolia back then have gradually become one family.

　　"I am doing rescue work of a sort. We are all past sixty, and several have already passed away. The desire to trace our roots grows stronger, and the chance to reunite with relatives becomes ever more precious," Liang Yinmei said. To find one's roots within one's lifetime is also a kind of blessing.

　　Learning that Zhang Jiping wished to find his relatives, Liang Yinmei took him to give blood samples three times. Finally, during the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon, word came that the verification and matching had succeeded, which excited Zhang Jiping so much that he had several restless nights.

　　"My hometown is Changzhou, Jiangsu. I've already bought the plane tickets and will take my son back to find my relatives and see my family and the place where I was born," Zhang Jiping said.

　　Less than 180 kilometers from Changzhou is Jiaxing, Zhejiang, where Cheng Jin was born. Equally fortunate as Zhang Jiping, Cheng Jin also successfully found his relatives with Liang Yinmei's help.

　　Cheng Jin's adoptive mother and Liang Yinmei's adoptive mother once worked in the same workshop, and from childhood his adoptive mother told Liang Yinmei that Cheng Jin, like her, was also a "Child of the State."

　　After establishing contact with hundreds of "Children of the State," Liang Yinmei spent more than three years searching for Cheng Jin, which laid the foundation for the later successful search.

　　Cheng Jin's adoptive father was a cadre and his adoptive mother a worker. They did not deliberately conceal his origins but told him early on that he was an orphan from Shanghai.

　　"My adoptive parents were extremely good to me. I was very frail as a child, so my parents paid extra to the kindergarten to give me milk and eggs to build me up," Cheng Jin said.

　　As his adoptive parents passed away one after another and his son married and established himself, Cheng Jin began searching for his relatives with a let's-give-it-a-try attitude. What he never expected was that after several blood samples, the match finally succeeded.

　　"I really never imagined it! I've been so excited these past few days. I still have an older brother and sister at home, and I'll get to see them in a few days." After learning the news, Cheng Jin specially bought an atlas and studies the route home every day.

　　According to Mongolian custom, on grand festivals and joyous occasions they wear splendid Mongolian attire to express their joy. For this reason, Zhang Jiping and Cheng Jin chose to wear Mongolian robes on the day of their family reunion, and they also prepared all kinds of grassland specialties for their relatives far away.

　　Reunion has not come easily. On the long road of searching for relatives, the perseverance and help of police officers and volunteers have been indispensable. "Thanks to the police, thanks to Liang Yinmei, thanks to the volunteers—it is precisely their unremitting efforts that have enabled us to be reunited with our relatives," Cheng Jin said.

　　"At present, a total of 16 'Children of the State' have found their relatives." Liang Yinmei shared the news of Zhang Jiping's and Cheng Jin's successful searches in the "Children of the State" WeChat group, and everyone hopes to share in this good fortune and realize their dreams of finding their relatives soon.