When four-year old Alice Maines released her balloon at her school fete on a rainy day in Manchester, UK, never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that it would end up being found by Xie Yufei in a park in Guangzhou, a sprawling metropolis 75 miles north of Hong Kong. The balloon, that cost just one pound, was one of 100 that were launched in a balloon race at Alice's Flixton Junior School's annual summer fair.