Sydney’s Top Sights - Sydney - page 193

Neighbourhood Top Five
Being transported into colonial vistas, Victorian parlours, Buddhist temples, postwar
streets, the heart of the outback and the imaginations of generations of artists at the Art
Gallery of NSW ( CLICK HERE ).
Shopping and eating your way through the vibrant streets of Chinatown ( CLICK HERE ).
Promenading through the green tunnel at the heart of elegant Hyde Park ( CLICK HERE
).
Enjoying a right royal shopping spree within the grand confines of the Queen Victor-
ia Building ( CLICK HERE ).
Admiring the haughty bastions of commerce lining Martin Place ( CLICK HERE ).
Explore: City Centre & Haymarket
Before suburban sprawl started in earnest in the mid-19th century, this area (and The
Rocks) was Sydney. Today it's a towering Central Business District (CBD) with sky-
scrapers shadowing sandstone buildings and churches.
Clinging to the CBD fringes are museums, gracious colonial buildings and leafy re-
treats. The strip of greenery from Hyde Park through The Domain to the Royal Botanic
Gardens counterpoints the clash and throb of Sydney's commerce. Allocate at least a day
to explore it properly, and a night to hit some of the ritzy restaurants and hidden bars. Sho-
paholics might need longer.
Wedged into the Haymarket district, Sydney's Chinatown is a tight nest of restaurants,
shops and aroma-filled alleyways, centred on Dixon St. No longer just Chinese, the area is
truly pan-Asian. Head here for cheap eats any time of the day or night.
Chinatown now extends towards Central station, an area that's become the epicentre of
backpacker megahostels, with their attendant bars, internet cafes and international buzz.
It's not the prettiest part of town, but it is indeed central.