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City Guide - Johannesburg - Sightseeing | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sightseeing Unlike other South African cities, such as Cape Town, with its world-famous Table Mountain, and Durban, with its dramatic beachfront parade of towering hotels, Johannesburg has no obvious single feature to distinguish it from many other drab, sprawling, inland cities. The 30-minute drive from the really quite impressive and efficiently managed Johannesburg International Airport serves as a good introduction to this city. From here, a six-lane highway (the R24 and N12) carves a path first through a high-tech industrial and commercial district, then through leafy, upper-income suburbia, passing between Eastgate Shopping Centre (arguably Africa's largest) and Bruma Lake Market World (self-proclaimed 'Africa's Biggest'), before entering Hillbrow, a gangster and vagrant-riddled high-rise flatland. This introduction might initially suggest that Johannesburg is an intimidating and risky place. However, it belies the fact that areas and sites such as shaking Soweto, grandiose Gold Reef City Theme Park and Casino, mellow Melville Village, tranquil Johannesburg Zoological Gardens and Military History Museum, and the unusual Newtown Cultural Precinct, among others, reveal a side to Johannesburg's multi-faceted character that is tourist-friendly, fascinating and relatively safe. Tourist Information Tourism Johannesburg (formerly Johannesburg Publicity Association) Upper Shopping Level, Village Walk, corner of Rivonia Road and Maud Street, Rosebank Tel: (011) 784 1354. Fax: (011) 883 4035. E-mail: marketing@tourismjohannesburg.co.za Web site: www.tourismjohannesburg.co.za Opening hours: Daily 0830-1700. There is also a tourist information kiosk in the main concourse at Park City Station (tel: (011) 773 3994), which is open for the same hours. |
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