都心

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 都心 (としん) is a city's central business or commercial area. 都心へ marks direction; 都心まで marks the endpoint of a distance or duration.
• Basic usage: Morning roads are congested toward downtown, and a train takes forty minutes from the suburbs to the center.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Direction of travel and endpoint of travel time
  • へ向かう emphasizes direction, while まで pairs with source 郊外から to set an endpoint. The word refers to the central district, not the whole city.