A helium balloon released at a school fête on a rainy day in Manchester has been found in southern China.

After a 6,000-mile journey that has meteorologists baffled, the shrivelled remains were found by Xie Yufei in a park in Guangzhou, a sprawling metropolis 75 miles north of Hong Kong. The latex balloon had been released on July 15 by Alice Maines, 4, and was one of 100 launched in a balloon race at Flixton Junior School’s annual summer fair. Each one of the balloons, sold for £1, carried a numbered ticket promising the finder a prize: a visit to Chester Zoo.

Sue Wood, secretary of the school’s parent teacher association, said: “We were struggling to launch them for most of the day. At 3pm there was a five-minute window where it wasn’t raining, so we all ran outside, did a countdown and launched them together.”

Alice, whose ticket was number 90, explained that she had limited experience in balloon races: “I just let go.” Her father, Andrew, an NHS manager said: “It didn’t seem to get very far. I thought, it won’t even make the next street.”

In the weeks that followed, balloons were posted back to the school, mostly from suburbs a few miles west of Manchester, although a couple made it to Liverpool.

Then on September 5, the second day of the new term, a large white envelope arrived in the headmaster’s office. The stamp and postmark were Chinese.

“I picked up this balloon when my friends and I were playing on August 25,” wrote the sender, Mr Xie. “I am in China, so I think it has travelled the furthest. Left is my picture. I am happy to pick it up.”

Speaking from his home in Guangzhou last night, Mr Xie, 26, whose job involves designing air conditioning units, said: “We were playing basketball in a park. I saw it by the edge of the court. It was shrunk, and there was an address attached.” Shrunk though it was, the balloon had not burst.

Meteorologists were surprised at the distance the balloon had travelled. John Hammond, from the Met Office, said: “Helium balloons usually go up and up and, as the pressure drops, they expand and burst.”

“If it had got up quite quick and if it had got caught in a jet stream, then perhaps it’s possible.”

Sceptics at Flixford Junior School suggested that the balloon had landed on a boat bound for China at Liverpool. However it got to China, it is thought unlikely that Mr Xie will claim his free ticket to Chester Zoo. Instead, the school is sending him a parcel of letters and drawings from the pupils.

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