I have a friend who studed in Australia. I know about Australia through him and TV. 

Many of my friends  think Australia is a beautiful, clean and peaceful country, and we love coalas and Kangaroos.

We all know Sydney because of the Sydney Opera House. It's a amazing building.  

Well, when reading this question, the first thing that came into my mind is "What does average Australian think of China?":)

Go back to the impression of Australia. To be frank, below are my rough ideas:

1. appealing natural environment

2. high welfare country due to mineral resources and low population

3. country's economy is mostly rely on mining and farming rather than high technology like USA

4. brisbane has flood; perth has hailstones; sydney has opera house;melbourne has ancient architecture. (from CCTV news)

5. (my personal opinion) I believe it's a country values honesty and equality. I remember the day Australian's former prime minister, Kevin Rudd, apologized officially for "white Australia policy" and the stolen generation. Before that I watched the movie AUSTRALIA. I think it is very brave to confess the history, face the past and move forward to become a better country.

Australia is considered as a welthy and developed western country by the average Chinese person, the majority of the local people there speak autralian english, there got fresh air, clean rivers and abundant mineral treasures. Among educated students in china, Australia is always considered as a higly organnised and civilized society and a saint place for studying finance and accounting or computer science, and the tuition fees are higher and higher for international students (our national channel in tv has reported that) lol

Hello! It’s my pleasure to answer the question and this the first time that I log on italki. In the eyes of the average Chinese person, Australia is one of the best choice of a trip going abroad. The beautiful scenery of the coast in Sydney is the first image coming into mind most when talking about Australia. The most famous architecture of Australia in China is the Sydney Opera House. I remembered that I first saw the picture of the Sydney Opera House on my Geology textbook. The most famous people of Australia in China is the former prime minister Kevin Rudd, and he can speak Chinese very fluently.
Speaking pf the news of Australia on the TV in China, I have to admit that there is very few of them every week.
I once read a book named The Thorn Birds written by an Australia writer--Colleen McCullough. From this book I get to know the beautiful scenery of Australia, and I am looking forward to going there and experiencing life on a farm.
I hope the answer will help you to get what you want. Have a nice day.

Matter of fact there is nothing much about Australia in our TV news. However, most of Chinese know your country more or less. I am pretty sure that the most famous thing known by CHinese about Australia is an anminal, kangaroos. as for culture, Sydney Opera House is also well known, shown in many places such as post cards, ppening title sequences in TV shows about tourism,etc.

For the ones who love football, invoving me, there is a football team which had had a game with a Chinese tearm, beaten and weed out ultimately, in the AFC champions League.

By the way, Australia is a beautiful place, although I have never been here so far. Would love to travel there.