"Our belief that China is a strong country supported us during the days when we were kidnapped in Iraq," said Lin Xiong after arriving at Amman's international airport on his way home.

Lin, 38, father of two sons, was one of the eight freed Chinese hostages kidnapped and then released by Iraqi militants earlier this month.

"We believed that Chinese government would exert great effort to rescue us soon," Lin insisted.

The eight Chinese citizens, aged between 19 and 40, were kidnapped in mid-January en route to Jordan by gunmen identifying themselves as the Islamic Resistance Movement.

After a video was released by the group, the Chinese government called for an immediate release of the hostages and contacted the Association of Muslim Scholars, an influential religious body in Iraq's Sunni population, for help.

A special three-member working group was also set up to coordinate the rescue efforts, led by Zhai Jun, director general of the West Asian and North African Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The working group arrived at Baghdad on Sunday and the hostages were handed over to the Chinese side the same day.

On Tuesday, the released Chinese left Baghdad for China accompanied by officials of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

"All of them are well and in good mood and they will be back to China soon," Zhai said.

According to Zhai, the eight Chinese citizens would travel via Jordan to China and his team would escort them all the way back to their hometown in Fujian Province in eastern China.

During their stopover here, Wei Wu, the youngest of the eight, expressed his gratitude to the Chinese government for sparing no effort to secure their release.

"I am keen to see my family as soon as possible," said the 19-year-old young man, who continued to say that the Chinese embassy in Jordan had made all necessary arrangements for them and prepared Chinese food for them.

"I felt family's care after arriving at Amman," he said feelingly.

For weather reason, the scheduled flight from Baghdad to Amman was canceled on Monday, which delayed their trip home for one day.

After a three-hour stopover, the eight freed Chinese hostages left Amman Tuesday afternoon on their way home.

Source: Xinhua