Zhou Cuixing, who was abducted from Sichuan province to Pingtan county in Fujian and forced to marry to villager, Lin Huojin, in 1982, was illiterate and couldn’t speak Mandarin and couldn’t tell where she was from and the paper work on her hukou (residence permit) didn’t go through – until this Jan 10, when her latest application finally came through.

This meant that for 33 years she hasn’t been able to enjoy even the most ordinary benefits, such as medical insurance and low-income subsidies and even her marriage was seen as illegal. Then things began to change when she got some help from the local police, who spent half a year tracking down her origins finally finding it last month.

One of the policemen involved, Zhang Yanfei, explained, “We’ve done a lot of talking with her to try to help her recall the details. But we encountered new difficulties because many rural villages have changed their names over the past 33 year.”

Police have confirmed that Zhou’s hometown is the village of Huaqiao, Sichuan province, and the news has obviously got Zhou excited, and, “Getting the hukou makes me as happy as buying a big house.”

Her husband says they plan to look for new work, apply for low-income family subsidies and more importantly, obtain a long-awaited marriage certificate.