Eagle-eyed deliveryman helps families reunite with missing people

"Some of my friends wondered why in my WeChat Moments, I kept reposting the notices of the missing, but I think it's a way of helping more people," he said.

Some of them also wondered if Hong's volunteer work might delay his deliveries.

"It often happens, but generally the customers understand when they know the reason," he said.

With his encouragement, some of his colleagues have also started to repost notices of missing people on their WeChat Moments and have begun to help search for them.

It was an episode in November 2019 that was the turning point for Hong becoming more actively involved.

At around 1 pm one day, he saw a woman standing on the street, looking in every direction. He worried that she might be lost but did not speak to her, as he was also afraid that she might misunderstand his concern.

He quickly checked phone notices to see if she was listed as missing, but when he found nothing relevant, he carried on with his deliveries. At about 7:30 pm, he received a notice about a missing woman. Her description matched the person he'd seen earlier that day.

He instantly regretted that he had not spoken to her. He called her family and went to the police station to check surveillance camera recordings and he also reposted the notice on his WeChat Moments.

Fortunately, one of his friends spotted the woman at a traffic light. Hong and her family members rushed over.

Upon seeing them, the woman, who had been wandering the streets for two days, began to cry, saying that she hadn't been able to find her way home.

"After that, I came up with three steps to help the missing: observe, communicate and contact. Stepping forward to communicate is key to not overlooking those in need," he said.

According to statistics jointly released in February by the Zhongmin Social Assistance Institute and Toutiao's volunteer project, the number of people who went missing in China last year reached 1 million. "Most of them are disadvantaged and suffer from mental disorders, cognitive difficulties or Alzheimer's," Hong said. "I hope more people will help them."

Among those he has helped, he is most concerned about a 13-year-old boy with special education needs. He said he is willing to donate the reward he received as "most beautiful take-away deliverymen" to help the boy go to a special education school. "I know how important family is. If we all keep an eye open for the missing, there will be fewer wanderers and broken families," he said. "I hope that more people will help and allow more families to know the happiness of reunion."

Huang Mengqin contributed to this story.