Police officers and a local travel firm in Kien Giang Province, southern Vietnam have helped to repatriate a 15-year-old Chinese boy who was abandoned by his father in 2019.

Officers and representatives of the travel firm brought Zheng Huanyi to Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City early on Wednesday morning and helped to fill out the paperwork needed for the boy to fly home to Shengsi County in the Chinese province of Zhejiang, the police agency of Kien Giang confirmed the same day.

Ha Tuan Minh, director of Winner International Travel Co. Ltd. in Phu Quoc, an island city off Kien Giang Province, accompanied police officers and the teenager.

Zheng, whose parents are divorced, traveled to Kien Giang with his father in 2019, according to Minh.

His father later entered into a relationship with a young woman in Kien Giang’s Giong Rieng District before fleeing the province for unknown reasons.

Zheng moved into a local pagoda shortly after being deserted by his father.

In addition to Chinese, he also speaks Vietnamese and Cambodian.

After learning of Zheng’s story, Minh teamed up with a local police agency to contact the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam to verify the boy’s identity. He then managed to get in touch with Ten Wei, Zheng’s mother.

On Monday, the Chinese Embassy wrote to the provincial police department of Kien Giang to request that they help Zheng fly home.

His mother authorized Minh to act as Zheng’s legal representative for the repatriation.

“Zheng told me that he couldn’t sleep at night because of his excitement to go home," Minh said.

“He couldn’t wait to be reunited with his mom."

Thanks to tremendous support from Kien Giang police and Minh, Zheng boarded a China Southern Airlines airplane at Tan Son Nhat at 12:55 pm on Wednesday.

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