BEIJING - An unprecedented large-scale online campaign to help parents find their missing children achieved its first big breakthrough on Tuesday, reuniting a father with his 6-year-old son who had been missing for three years.

Peng Gaofeng, a 30-year-old from South China's Shenzhen city, burst into tears on Tuesday afternoon at the sight of his son in Pizhou city in East China's Jiangsu province, which is more than 1,000 km from Shenzhen.

"He's my boy. It couldn't be wrong. He still recognizes me and knows how to speak our hometown dialect," Peng told China Daily over the phone on Tuesday evening while waiting for the DNA test results that will prove the wonderful news.