EXTREMES

Worlds Smallest Man in 2009

He Ping Ping took Tokyo by storm while visiting the city to launch the 2009 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. Mr Ping Ping, who was born with a form of dwarfism and is 29 inches tall and 15 lbs in weight, easily slipped into the shoe of the worlds tallest man. He has been officially named by the book as the worlds shortest man.

The 20-year-old measures 73 cm (2 ft 5 in) tall, and is the third child of a family in Huade county, in the city of Wulanchabu in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. He has two sisters, both of whom developed at normal rates and are now married. According to his father, He Yun, at birth he was as small as a palm. When it became apparent the child was growing very slowly, doctors diagnosed the cause as the bone deformity Osteogenesis imperfecta, which hinders normal bone growth and bodily height.

World's Tallest Man in 2009

The world's tallest man, Bao Xishun today shook hands with He Ping Ping who claims to be Earth's shortest. These two men actually hail from the same region of Inner Mongolia.

Bao Xishun world's tallest man again. Guinness World Records has returned the title of world's tallest man to China's Bao Xishun, 2.36 metres (7 feet 9 inches) after Ukrainian Leonid Stadnyk, 2.57 metres (8 feet 5 inches) who "doesn't want to be bothered" refused to be measured under new guidelines.

Bao’s official re-coronation as the world’s tallest man will be confirmed in the Guinness World Records 2009 edition which will be released on September 17.

Standing at 7 foot 9 inches and towering over his new wife the world's tallest man married a woman two-thirds his size and almost half his age in a traditional Mongolian ceremony sponsored by at least 15 companies hoping to cash in on his fame.

Hundreds of people, some travelling for hours, turned up to see Bao, 59, wed saleswoman Xia Shujuan, a mere 5 foot 6 inches tall and just 29 years old.

Draped in a shimmering blue silk coat, Bao waved to the crowd before going into an enormous yurt where guests ate lamb and cheese and watched Mongolian song and dance shows.