THINGS are looking up for this little fella – as he has just been officially named the world’s shortest man.

At the age of 20, pint-sized He Pingping stands just over 29in tall, the same height as the average one-year-old child.

Click below to see more pictures of Pingping.

But while a one-year-old weighs around 22lb, Pingping tips the scales at just 16lb.

Now his extraordinary height has won him a place in the latest edition of the Guinness World Records book.

How Pingping measures up ... we took him to a tailors

Arthur Edwards

And to celebrate his new-found fame Pingping jetted to the UK from his home in Inner Mongolia especially to meet The Sun so we could take him on a whistle-stop tour of the capital.

Not surprisingly, Pingping finds shopping for clothes a pretty tall order and buys his togs mainly from children’s stores.

So our first stop was at a top tailor in London’s posh Savile Row.

Simon Cundy, of Henry Poole Bespoke Tailors, who have made suits for Churchill and George VI, said Pingping was the shortest person they had ever measured.

He added: “His inside leg is just 11½in and his chest is just 20in.

“It would take less than a metre of cloth to make a suit for Pingping whereas it takes about three and a half metres for an average-sized man.”

Pingping was keen to visit Buckingham Palace but found himself dwarfed by the guards outside.

Letter give him a hand ... our Caroline with Pingping

ARTHUR EDWARDS

But then even the guardsmen’s famous 18in bearskin hats are almost as tall as the little man himself.

Calling home from a traditional red phone box was an impossible stretch for Pingping.

And posting a letter home proved highly difficult as he didn’t even come close to reaching the post box slot.

He finally got a helping hand from our girl Caroline who lifted him up to the box.

While he was in London Pingping met a fellow record holder at the other end of the spectrum — 6ft 6in Svetlana Pankratova.

The 36-year-old former basketball star is the proud possessor of the world’s longest female legs, at an incredible 51.9in.

Pingping’s record-breaking height is the result of a rare condition called primordial dwarfism.

Sufferers have smaller bodies in all stages of life, starting before birth.

When Pingping was born, he was no bigger than his father’s palm and had to be fed through a tiny straw because his mouth was so small.

Go on Sun ... Pingping discovers the greatest paper in the world

Arthur Edwards

Even when he started to grow, life was still a challenge for Pingping because of his family’s crippling poverty.

His brother-in-law De En Liu, who goes everywhere with him, said: “Pingping’s village is exceptionally poor.

“The family rarely have actual money, instead they survive on the food they grow and the poultry they raise.”

The He family’s nearest shop is more than 12 miles away and the round trip on local transport takes them from morning to night.

Not surprisingly, it is a journey they rarely make.

Wealthier friends from nearby villages usually give Pingping and his parents clothes as gifts when they visit.

The family still draw their water from a well as there is no piped supply and the village was only hooked up to electricity for the first time four years ago.

To celebrate, the family treated themselves to an old TV.

But life changed even more drastically when brother-in-law Liu spoke to a local journalist about Pingping and they contacted Guinness.

Now he has has secured the official world record, Pingping stands to earn a fortune for his family as the world’s smallest man.

Despite his growing reputation, Pingping’s ambitions are fairly modest.

He said: “I just want to have a normal life, get married and have children.”

But given the amount of attention he attracts by simply walking down the street, sadly it seems this is one dream which might be a bit too far out of Pingping’s reach.

Guinness World Records 2009 is out on September 17.

c.iggulden@the-sun.co.uk

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