With the number of Chinese tourists visiting Australia each year on the rise, the company that runs climbing tours of the Sydney Harbour Bridge has come up with a new way to welcome in the Lunar New Year.
BridgeClimb Sydney has been running walking tours of the bridge's arches since the late '90s - and it has become one of Sydney's top tourist attractions.
The company began Mandarin-language tours of the bridge in 2013 with customised commentary for topics of interest for Chinese customers.
Now, the latest version of the bridge climb combines heights and singing in public.
Christened the 'karaoke climb', it comes complete with microphones, a TV screen to read lyrics off and even a shiny disco ball, all located at the bridge's summit.
The karaoke climb is tailored towards tourists from China - an important growth market not just for the bridge climb operators but also for the broader Australian tourism industry.
"Karaoke is a big thing in China. Obviously we have a lot of visitors come in from China to visit the Sydney Harbour Bridge, one of the most iconic features we have in Sydney," says Albert Yin, who is one of BridgeClimb's Mandarin-speaking tour guides.
"So, they all want to be part of the atmosphere, part of the Chinese festival. While they do the climb they obviously can also sing a lot of songs."
Albert Yin says bridge climbers will get to choose from five Mandarin-language songs to belt out to the unsuspecting city below.
He says the tunes were voted on in a competition involving users of the Chinese microblogging website Weibo.
"All the songs are very traditional. To give some examples, we have one song that's for an older crowd, but one the younger generation knows about as well. It's one you'd hear from mum and dad. Another song is called 'Friends', and then we have another one representing the moon and the heart."
The karaoke climbs will run through Lunar New Year - February 19 - until the end of that month.
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