Now he has been reunited with his mother after drawing a map of his home village from his memories of three decades ago and sharing it on a popular video-sharing app in the hope that someone might be able to identify it.
Abducted in 1989, Li was sold to a family in Lankao, more than 1,100 miles away. Child abductions are common in China and Li was probably taken because the family wanted a boy.
Li said he was inspired to look for his biological family after seeing high-profile stories in the media describing two other abduction cases that ended in reunions.
He mentioned the case of Guo Gangtang, who became a media celebrity after searching for his missing son for 24 years, travelling more than 300,000 miles by motorbike in his eventually successful search.
