A man in northeastern China's Heilongjiang province was reportedly floating in a hydrogen balloon collecting pine nuts from tree tops when he accidentally floated away. The fellow, surnamed Hu, was missing for two days until a rescue team tracked his mobile phone and found him stuck in a tree nearly 200 miles away. Good thing he didn't light a cigarette to calm his nerves. From CNN:
Hu told interviewers he had been cold and hungry during the ordeal. However, he was largely unharmed, suffering what were described as only minor injuries to his waist.
The use of hydrogen or helium balloons to harvest pine nuts has become more common in China in recent years and there are occasionally reports of pickers being swept away — though not usually as far as Hu.
