Sydney is the biggest city in Australia and the capital of the state of New South Wales, on the country's south-east coast. It is a major centre for banking, business, industry and universities, and it is the city most people picture when they think of Australia — though here is the thing students most often get wrong: it is NOT the capital of Australia. That is Canberra, a much smaller inland city chosen long ago partly to settle the argument between Sydney and Melbourne. Sydney is built around one of the world's great natural harbours, and two buildings on that harbour are world-famous: the Sydney Harbour Bridge, a huge steel arch that locals nickname 'the Coathanger', and the Sydney Opera House, whose white shells look like sails and which is widely admired as one of the most beautiful modern buildings anywhere. The city is also known for Bondi Beach, for hosting the 2000 Olympic Games, and for its enormous New Year's Eve fireworks — which, because of the time zone, the world watches early. For Taiwanese readers, two practical notes: Sydney is a very common destination for working holidays and study abroad, and its seasons are the opposite of ours — Christmas there falls in hot summer weather. As a word, Sydney is a proper noun and always takes a capital S. It is also a person's name — a boy's or a girl's given name, and a surname — usually spelt 'Sidney' for the person and 'Sydney' for the city, though both spellings turn up for both.