Photos by Chun Yin Wah

SYDNEY, Australia – Does Sydney, the biggest city on the world's only single-nation continent, really deserve its reputation as an ideal place to live? A regular contributor to Cairns Media Magazine has visited “down under” and supplied photos as clues.

Instantly, we notice the impressive natural beauty, a potentially breathtaking mix of city buildings, blue skies and undulating waters. Everything – the air, the harbor, the streets – looks much cleaner than our contributor has seen in Hong Kong. Sydney's 4.5 million people deserve big praise for that.

Definitely Australia's business capital, Sydney plays second-fiddle politically to Canberra, the national capital. It's also the New South Wales state capital. Not bad for a place established as a British penal colony back in 1788.

Sydney's harbor, with its famous Opera House and towering Harbor Bridge, possesses the beauty and fame to rival Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor. Unlike officials in Hong Kong, those in Sydney appear wise enough not to sully or even eliminate their harbor with endless land-reclamation projects.

There's plenty in Sydney to make people happy to be there. Many visitors, whether in town for business or pleasure, may wish to stay longer. Abundant beaches and parks intensify such feelings.

Enthusiasm surrounds “the Sydney lifestyle” with its regular sunshine, warm temperatures and business opportunities plus leisure, fun-loving attitudes, places for play, fine-dining and Aussie culture. We're told that the entire city has a laid-back feeling, unlike the more frantic pace in Northern Hemisphere business hubs like New York, London, Tokyo or Hong Kong.

This creates a problem. People from such go-go-go-before-stress-kills-you cities easily turn disgruntled when trying to conduct business in Sydney. “The people there can be too lackadaisical,” our contributor said. “When I need something done urgently, they're too slow to help me.”

Does “lackadaisical” really mean “lazy”? We doubt it because Sydney's people and other Australians show ample ambition when training for sports. Notice how easily they ran away with first place at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India.

Back on the plus side, most Sydney residents live in pleasing houses, luxuriously spacious compared to those in Asia, often with yards as private outdoor areas. These city-dwellers have ample space for dogs, cats or other pets. If blessed with “green thumbs”, they even may grow their own fruit and vegetables.

Animal-lovers appreciate that Australia has creatures unlike anywhere else. Our contributor made a point to encounter kangaroos, koala bears, dingoes and others.

Everything considered, Sydney definitely offers the promise and allure of “a sweet life”. For many residents it even delivers it, at least temporarily.

Yet as our contributor also observed, people there endure problems too. They laugh, but also cry. They live well, but still die. They may spend lavishly, but homeless people linger on sidewalks. Australians have charming smiles and express friendly greetings, but racist incidents happen entirely too often. Sydney doesn't have regular earthquakes like San Francisco and Christchurch do, or the danger of flooding as in New Orleans, but bushfires sometimes lick at its fringes.

A woman strides across a street
in Australia's business capital.



People come and go at Sydney Central.



Apparently homeless, a man (centre)
settles down on a busy sidewalk.



The water looks much cleaner
than that near less pristine cities.



Cruising on the harbor waters adds to the splendor.