A 4-year-old English schoolgirl who attached a letter to a balloon has received an answer from a man in southern China, nearly 6,000 miles away. Alice Maines of Manchester launched her balloon in July, during her school’s summer fair. The idea was to see whose balloon would travel the farthest. Last month, a letter and photograph arrived from Xie Yufei, 26, of Guangzhou, 75 miles north of Hong Kong. “I picked up this balloon when my friends and I were playing on August 25,” he reported. The kids were elated. “You could have heard a pin drop when I showed the children on a map how far the balloon had flown,” said teacher Jason Redmond.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
-
6 new horror novels to read this fallThese upcoming releases will have you on the edge of your seat — or hiding under the covers
-
6 bucolic homes in New Hampshire
Feature Featuring an island house in Meredith and a private pond in Lee
-
Etaf Rum recommends 6 empowering reads centered around women
Feature The author suggests works by Zora Neale Hurston, Sylvia Plath and more
