Australia continues to surf along to China’s rise. Apart from providing the physical and energy resources China needed as it powered through infrastructure mode, the Aussie education and tourism sectors now benefit directly from China’s booming middle class. Australia offers a stable environment not too far a flight away; with fresh air and healthy produce in abundance.
The experience here also helps expand their world view. The first culture shock that crossing the road isn’t a matter of life and death is a powerful worldview changer. Exposure to fresh organic produce make many lament on the reliability of agricultural produce back home. That tourism here offers a level of service even the most elite would could not get access to back home, offers strong lessons too.
From this vantage point, this scenario will continue to grow with great momentum. Keeping growth at a manageable pace with the Australian environment is the next challenge.
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Rolling out the red carpet as Chinese tourism takes off
By Philip Wen and Matt O’Sullivan
Source – The Age, published January 26, 2013
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics.
XIONG LAN grew up poor in post-cultural revolution China atop the vast Tibetan Plateau in the country’s remote north-west.
Today, she is halfway through a remarkable 50-day sojourn around Australia, hoping to take in the best Australia’s east coast has to offer.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
Having crossed Sydney, regional New South Wales and Canberra off her list, she is boarding a tour bus headed for the Great Ocean Road on Victoria’s surf coast.
”The architecture of the buildings in Sydney and Melbourne are like works of art,” enthuses Xiong, who owns a business in Qinghai province’s largest city, Xining.
”And what they say about Australia is true, it really has natural beauty.”
A group of Chinese tourists travel on a bus tour of the Great Ocean Road. Photo: Michael Clayton-Jones
While Qinghai, like the rest of China, has made huge economic strides since opening up its economy, it is disadvantaged by its geographic isolation and remains one of the poorest provinces in China. Until recently, it may still have been rare for ordinary Qinghai natives to undertake a holiday of this magnitude.
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