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    A Sydney Pass gives you unlimited and flexible travel on the Explorer Buses: the 'red' Sydney Explorer shows you around our exciting city sights while the 'blue' Bondi Explorer visits Sydney Harbor bays and famous beaches. Take to the water on one of three magnificent daily harbor cruises(游船). You can also travel free on regular Sydney Buses, Sydney Ferries or City Rail services (limited area), so you can go to every corner of this beautiful city.

    Imagine browsing at Darling Harbor, sampling the famous seafood at Watsons Bay or enjoying the city lights on an evening ferry cruise. The possibilities and plans are endless with a Sydney Pass. Wherever you decide to go, remember that bookings are not required on any of our services so tickets are treated on a first in, first seated basis.

    Sydney Passes are available for 3, 5 or 7 days for use over a 7 calendar day period. With a 3 or 5 day pass you choose on which days out of the 7 you want to use it. All Sydney Passes include a free Airport Express inward trip before starting your 3, 5 or 7 days, and the return trip is valid (有效的) for 2 months from the first day your ticket was used.

Sydney Pass Fares

*A child is defined as anyone from the ages of 4 years to under 16 years. Children under 4 years travel free.

**A family is defined as 2 adults and any number of children from 4 to under 16 years of age from the same family.

    If feels like every time my mother and I start to have a conversation, it turns into an argument. We talk about something as simple as dinner plans and suddenly, my mother will push the conversation into World War？She'll talk about my lack of a bright future because I don't plan to be a doctor. And much to her disappointment, I don't want to do any job related to science, either. In fact, when I was pushed to say that I planned to major （主修） in English and communications, she nearly had a heart attack.

    "Why can't you be like my coworker's son？"she bemoans all the time. Her coworker's son received a four year scholarship and is now earning 70, 000 dollars a year as an engineer. I don't know what to answer except that I simply can't be like Mr Perfect as I've called the unnamed coworker's son. I can't be like him. I'm the type of person who loves to help out in the community, write until the sun goes down, and most of all, wants to achieve a career because I love it, not because of fame （名声） or salary.

    I understand why my mother is worried about my future major. I've seen my mother struggle to raise me on her small salary and work long hours. She leaves the house around 6：30 am and usually comes home around 5 pm or even 6 pm. However, I want her to know that by becoming a doctor, it doesn't mean I'll be successful. I'd rather follow my dreams and create my own future.

    A European Union program is letting blind people experience famous paintings for the first time. It uses three dimensional (3-D) printing to re-create famous paintings so they can be touched.

    One painting printed with the new technology is Gustav Klimt's “The Kiss.” It is a popular attraction at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, Austria. The painting shows a man and a woman standing in a field filled with flowers. They are wearing gold robes and have their arms around each other. The man leans down to kiss the woman.

    Klimt finished the painting in 1908. Until now, people who had trouble seeing could not appreciate the artwork. But thanks to the reproduction they can touch the piece and feel the ridges and depressions. Andreas Reichinger started making 3-D versions of artwork in 2010. He said this reproduction was his most difficult project because the couple's robes are so detailed.

    Dominika Raditsch is a blind museum visitor. She touched the reproduction. As she moved her hands around it she said, ”Exactly, can you see these? There are so many details.“ Raditsch said she can imagine what the original painting looks like when she touches the reproduction. “It's somehow round. You can feel it. It comes with it. And in many places it's so smooth. And then I think to myself: it probably shines too!” Raditsch said.

    The Belvedere is not the only museum to have 3-D versions of its artwork. Some of the pieces at the Prado, in Madrid, Spain, have reproductions that can be touched. But the piece in Vienna has one special part: it is made with widely available 3-D printing technology. That means one day, blind art fans anywhere in the world could download the source files and print the reproductions themselves.

    While the U.S. is still debating about getting rid of the penny, Sweden is rapidly moving towards abolishing currency (货币) altogether. Though this may sound radical(过激的), it is a natural evolution in this digital society.

    Sweden, which was the first European country to introduce banknotes in 1661, has just been working harder to convince its residents that digital payments are a safer alternative to carrying cash.

    Over the years, the idea has gained popularity with residents, especially the younger generation that is much more comfortable with technology. Today many banks don't even have ATMs and some have stopped handling cash altogether!

    Tickets to ride public buses in most Swedish cities can only be purchased via cell phones. Numerous businesses are also moving towards accepting only digital payments. Even the homeless that sell street paper to make ends meet have to start accepting this mode of payment!

    But despite its growing popularity, some people don't like this radical idea. They include the homeless, elderly people as well as those living in rural areas who are still uncomfortable with mobile phones and computers. But the officials are confident that in the very near future, they will be able to convince everyone to move this safe and more cost-effective payment system.

    Sweden is not the only country trying to abolish paper currency and coins. The movement is rapidly gaining ground in Denmark and Finland as well. In 2014, Israel announced a three-step plan to go cashless and just last week the vendors(小贩)of a popular street in Sydney declared they would stop accepting currency from customers. Whether this phenomenon spreads remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure—With increasingly advanced payment systems being introduced every day, pulling out cash is rapidly becoming "uncool".

    In the mid-1990s, Tom Bissell taught English as a volunteer in Uzbekistan. He left after seven months, physically broken and having lost his mind. A few years later, still attracted to the country, he returned to Uzbekistan to write an article about the disappearance of the Aral Sea.

    His visit, however, ended up involving a lot more than that. Hence this book, Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia, which talks about a road trip from Tashkent to Karakalpakstan, where millions of lives have been destroyed by the slow drying up of the sea. It is the story of an American travelling to a strange land, and of the people he meets on his way: Rustam, his translator, a lovely 24-year-old who picked up his colorful English in California, Oleg and Natasha, his hosts in Tashkent, and a string of foreign aid workers.

    This is a quick look at life in Uzbekistan, made of friendliness and warmth, but also its darker side of society. In Samarkand, Mr Bissell admires the architectural wonders, while on his way to Bukhara he gets a taste of police methods when suspected of drug dealing. In Ferghana, he attends a mountain funeral(葬礼)followed by a strange drinking party. And in Karakalpakstan, he is saddened by the dust storms, diseases and fishing boats stuck miles from the sea.

    Mr Bissell skillfully organizes historical insights and cultural references, making his tale a well-rounded picture of Uzbekistan, seen from Western eyes. His judgment and references are decidedly American, as well as his delicate stomach. As the author explains, this is neither a travel nor a history book, or even a piece of reportage. Whatever it is, the result is a fine and vivid description of the purest of Central Asian traditions.

We are currently experiencing an unprecedented era in the realm of space exploration, marked by a surge in the retrieval and study of celestial samples. This "golden age" is characterized by the active efforts of global space agencies to gather and analyze material from various celestial bodies, including asteroids, moons, and planets.

China's Chang'e 5 mission stands out as a recent triumph in this endeavor. On December 17, the Chang'e 5 lunar probe successfully concluded its journey by landing in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, as reported by China Daily. This mission, the first lunar sample-return endeavor since 1976, managed to secure an impressive 1,713 grams of lunar rocks and dust, utilizing advanced drilling technology and robotic arms.

Similarly, on December 6, Japan's Hayabusa 2 probe achieved a remarkable feat by returning a capsule filled with samples from the asteroid Ryugu. This marks the second instance of asteroid samples being collected and brought back to Earth, following the original Hayabusa spacecraft's accomplishment in 2010.

The momentum in this field is set to continue, with NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft anticipated to return to Earth in 2023, carrying samples from the asteroid Bennu. Additionally, Russia's Lunar-25 mission is poised to launch in 2021, with the objective of collecting lunar samples.

The significance of these sample-return missions cannot be overstated. They hold the potential to shed light on long-standing mysteries that have baffled scientists, such as the origins of life and the emergence of water on Earth. As Ann Nguyen, a NASA planetary scientist, emphasizes, "I cannot emphasize enough how valuable return samples are for increasing our understanding of the origin and evolution of our solar system and our place in the universe, and how we came to be."

Upon arrival on Earth, these celestial samples undergo meticulous analysis using sophisticated instruments. These analyses can yield more detailed insights than what can be gleaned from photographs or robotic rovers alone.

In the case of the Chang'e 5 lunar samples, scientists will employ a variety of analytical methods, tests, and experiments to determine the composition, structure, and physical properties of the lunar material. This comprehensive understanding will contribute to a deeper comprehension of the moon's history and, by extension, the broader history of our solar system.

Though we have only begun to explore the surface of these celestial bodies, both in a literal and figurative sense, the knowledge we have gained is already substantial. The journey of discovery is far from over, with a wealth of mysteries still waiting to be unveiled.