'I miss you': Mysterious note found on beach sparks Facebook hunt
A man has turned to social media to help translate a message in a bottle he found washed up on a beach.
John Weldon is used to finding messages in bottles. He regularly searches Long Beach in the US state of Washington collecting treasures buried in the sand, but the retired US Air Force Major was stumped when he came across a faded message written in a foreign language inside of a plastic water bottle.
Mr Weldon posted images of the bottle and its mysterious message to a Facebook group dedicated to beach finds.
Members in the group quickly got to work attempting to translate the message and concluded the note contained Chinese characters.
“My friend is Chinese and said the top three characters are a females name ‘Li Yajuan’ and then it says ‘I miss you’,” one person wrote.
“The first line is a name, the second line says ‘missing you already’ - How sweet!” another user confirmed.
Members in the group were blown away by the personal message and began to suggest theories on the person who wrote it.
“It’s simplified form of Chinese, so it must be from mainland China or Singapore, traditional form is used in Taiwan. Pretty interesting!” one person wrote with the help of a Chinese speaking friend.
“Wouldn't it be amazing if someone found her and delivered the message?” another person commented.
Mr Weldon is an active beachcomber, collecting interesting objects he finds washed up on beaches as a hobby and told Yahoo News Australia messages in bottles are quite a common find.
“I’ve found a few messages in a bottle since picking up the hobby,” he said.
Mr Weldon explained being in the Pacific Northwest means regular currents bring debris from China and Japan to the beaches he searches.
“The debris ranges from plastic Japanese fishing floats and glass floats, to common debris like the plastic water bottle with a handwritten message inside,” he explained.
The mysterious Li Yajuan mentioned in the message is yet to be found.
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