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.
-
August 2 editorial cartoonsCartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include a tariff self-own, rough times at the Trump golf course, and more
-
5 inexcusably hilarious cartoons about Ghislaine Maxwell angling for a pardonCartoons Artists take on the circle of life, Ghislaine's Island, and more
-
Ozzy Osbourne obituary: heavy metal wildman and lovable reality TV dadIn the Spotlight For Osbourne, metal was 'not the music of hell but rather the music of Earth, not a fantasy but a survival guide'
