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From Circular Quay to as far south as King Street is Sydney's Central Business District , often referred to as the CBD, with Martin Place as its commercial nerve centre, and the Museum of Sydney as its most compelling attraction. Stretching south of here to the Town Hall - with George and Pitt streets being the main thoroughfares - is a shopaholics oasis, where you'll find all the department stores and several shopping malls, including the celebrated Queen Victoria Building. The lavish State Theatre and the decorative Town Hall are also worth a peek, and overlooking it all, with supreme views of the city, is the AMP Centrepoint Tower. The short stretch between the Town Hall and Liverpool Street is for the most part teenage territory, a frenetic zone of multiscreen cinemas, pinball halls and fast-food joints. This stretch is trouble-prone on Friday and Saturday nights when there are pleasanter places to choose to catch a film. Things change pace at Liverpool Street, where Sydney's Spanish corner consists basically of a clutch of Spanish restaurants and a Spanish Club. George Street becomes increasingly downmarket as it heads to Central Station - but along the way you'll pass Chinatown and Paddy's Market in the area known as Haymarket , and just beyond is Darling Harbour . Just east of Martin Place, the southern end of Macquarie Street is lined with the grand edifices that were the result of Governor Macquarie's dreams for a stately city: the State Library, State Parliament House, Sydney Hospital, the former Royal Mint and Hyde Park Barracks. Macquarie Street neatly divides business from pleasure, separating the office towers and cramped streets of the CBD from the open spaces of The Domain , directly behind the strip of historic buildings; it runs down alongside the Royal Botanic Gardens to Mrs Macquaries Point for sublime views of the harbour. In The Domain you'll also find the Art Gallery of NSW and a wonderful outdoor pool. At the southern end of Macquarie Street, Hyde Park was fenced off by Governor Macquarie in 1810 to mark the outskirts of his township, and with its war memorials, surrounding churches, and peripheral Australian Museum , is still very much a formal city park.
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