In Tour of Australia, Chinese Admire Clean Air but Bemoan Lack of Hot Drinking Water

CANBERRA, Australia — gThe Chinese tourists found Parliament House, one of Australia’s most enduring national symbols, well . . . underwhelming.

“County-level governments in China have fancier buildings. Am I right?” said Jimmy Zhao, a Shanghai-born tour guide, who last month led a group of 55 tourists mostly from China, but also Malaysia and Singapore, on a four-day bus tour of Australia’s East Coast.

The group giggled and agreed with Mr. Zhao’s assessment, but they were also impressed that, unlike in China, anyone could walk into the heart of Australia’s government. When Mr. Zhao, 53, pointed out a bathroom used by a former prime minister, one tourist sprinted off to experience the V.I.P. urinal.

“Today we are all senators!” shouted another Chinese visitor.

Tensions between Australia and China are at an all-time high — spurred, in part, by accusations of Chinese meddling in Australian politics — but the rate of Chinese tourists visiting Australia is surging. The country hosted 1.3 million Chinese tourists in the year ending September 2018, more than the population of Australia’s fifth-biggest city, Adelaide.

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