- Sao Paulo and São Paulo (city) redirect here. This article deals with the largest city of Brazil. For other meanings, see São Paulo (disambiguation).
 Downtown São Paulo, showing the landmark buildings Italia (at left) and Copan (curved façade at center). São Paulo (meaning St. Paul in English) is the capital of São Paulo state in southeastern Brazil. It is located 250 miles (400 km) from Rio de Janeiro, and 640 miles (1030 km) from Brasília.
The city proper has 1575 sq kilometers (575 sq miles) of area and had a population of 10.9 million in 2003 (according to CityMayors), making it the largest city in Brazil by far and the worlds second largest city in terms of population. (http://www.citymayors.com/features/largest_cities1.html)
About 20 million people live in the Greater São Paulo metropolitan area, which is currently ranked as the second-largest in the world and the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, though different sources may put the city in fifth, sixth or seventh positions. The city and state of São Paulo are so economically relevant for the patterns of South America that they are considered a separate region of Brazil when international competitiveness rankings are formulated.
Highlights
São Paulo is the most important business center of Brazil and one of the biggest cities of the world. As the default location for music concerts, plays, film festivals, fashion shows, and international sports events, São Paulo disputes with Rio de Janeiro the title of Brazil's capital of culture and sports.
The city has a multicultural metropolitan area, which some have compared to New York, with heavy Portuguese, Italian, Arabian and Japanese influences. It is the city with the largest number of Japanese people outside Japan. São Paulo is known for its varied and sophisticated gastronomy, ranging from Chinese to French, from fast food chains to five star restaurants. Its night life is animated by thousands of bars, pubs, lounges, and discos, that cater for a variety of music tastes and are often open all night.
São Paulo is home to the largest university in Brazil (University of São Paulo), to a major art museum (MASP), a major symphonic orchestra (OSESP), a Formula One Grand Prix race track (Interlagos), and the world's largest private-owned sports stadium (Morumbi, site of the São Paulo soccer team).
There are two major airports in the São Paulo metropolitan area: Guarulhos (GRU, for domestic and international flights) and Congonhas (CGH, for domestic flights only).
São Paulo's birthday is January 25.
Economics
Aerial view of Paulista Avenue (Avenida Paulista) neighborhood. São Paulo is the financial and industrial center of the country. Many national and multi-national corporations, including the largest private banks, have their headquarters in the city or in its metropolitan area. For instance, the city is known to have more German companies than any other single city outside Germany.
São Paulo's stock exchange is the Bovespa, while its futures exchange is the BM&F. Its financial districts are located on the surroundings of Avenida Paulista and in the Centro Velho. Other important business districts are located near the aforementioned places plus Avenida Berrini, Itaim Bibi, Vila Olímpia and Chácara Santo Antônio.
There is also a number of highly specialized districts, like Bom Retiro and Brás (wholesale garment districts), Consolação (lighting equipment), Rua Santa Ifigênia (electrical and electronic parts), Rua Teodoro Sampaio (furniture and musical equipment) and the most croweded district located at Rua Vinte e Cinco de Março where you can find practicaly everything, to name a few. Media and communications industries are also concentrated in São Paulo, which is house to a large number of advertising and broadcasting companies.
Like many big cities in developing countries, a large percentage of São Paulo's population lives below the poverty line. The city is surrounded and permeated by extensive shantytowns (favelas and cortiços).
Politics
Because of its economic and demographic weight, São Paulo has always played a pivotal role in Brazilian politics. With a constituency larger than that of many Brazilian states, the Mayor's office is viewed by politicians as a springboard for state- and national-level offices.
São Paulo's current mayor is José Serra from Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB). He will be at the office until December 31st, 2008.
Some of the last São Paulo mayors were:
 A simulated-color satellite image of the Greater São Paulo metropolitan area (center), and the coastal towns of Santos and São Vicente (below). Culture
Almost 1 million people visited the 26th Bienal.
Its theme was chosen to enable a wide range of artistic positions to feel comfortable. The concept of Território Livre (Free territory) involves various dimensions: it has a physical-geographical, a socio-political as well as an aesthetic dimension the latter, of course, being of greatest interest to us in the context of this exhibition.
In order to emphasize the thematic unity of the overall exhibition, the invited artists and those representing the countries are mixed together on the 25,000 square meters of the spacious Oscar Niemeyer Pavilion. So, despite the complexity of individual voices, the end result will be a common concert.
As always, the biggest contingent of artists comes from Brazil: like all the countries it has an artist in the national representations segment, while another 19 Brazilians were integrated into the list of 80 invited artists from all over the world. The regions São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and the rest of the country are equally represented, each providing one-third of the invited Brazilian artists.
In addition to an intensification of the North-South dialog, the Bienal´s aims include the promoting of links between non-European cultures along a South-South orientation.
More to come in 2006.
History
The city was founded on January 25, 1554, by Portuguese Jesuit missionaries José de Anchieta and Manoel da Nóbrega, who established a mission — the Colégio de São Paulo de Piratininga — to convert the Tupi-Guarani indians. Located just beyond the Serra do Mar cliffs overlooking the port city of Santos, and close to the Tietê River, the new settlement became the natural entrance to the vast and fertile plateau that would eventually become the State of São Paulo.
São Paulo became officially a city in 1711. It experienced a boom during coffee cycle, starting in the late 19th century — chiefly because of its privileged position next to the port of Santos, through which most of the country's exports were shipped.
After 1881, waves of immigrants from Italy, Japan and other countries arrived in São Paulo, at first to work on the enormous coffee plantations established in the State. In the 20th century, with the industrial development of the country, many of them moved to the capital; which also attracted new contingents of immigrants, including Lebanese, Armenians, Greek, Jews, Chinese, Koreans and Lithuanians.
Transportation
The city is crossed by many of the most important expressways of the country, like the BR-116, SP-270, SP-280, Anhanguera, Anchieta, Castelo Branco and Imigrantes. Some railways also cross the city. They are, however, very old and were constructed intending not to attend people, but to transport coffee to Santos's seaport. Santos continue to have Brazil's busiest seaport thanks to São Paulo's needings (exportation and importation of industrializated goods).
São Paulo has two airports. Congonhas Airport operates domestic and regional flights mainly to Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Brasília. Campo de Marte handles some private and small airplanes. Both are very busy airports. Guarulhos International Airport, located 25 km northeast from downtown, operates domestic and international flights to the city, in the neighbooring city of Guarulhos.
The city has aproximately 60 km of subway (metro) system, complemented by another 270 km of CPTM (Companhia de Trens Metropolitanos) trains (railways). They are not sufficient to attend the city in a efficient manner, even though both CPTM and Metrô carry some 3,5 million people on an average weekday, and a few new underground lines will add another million people to the system within the next 5 years.
The bulk of the public transport (public and private companies) is composed more than 10.000 buses. Also, there is a strong presence of informal transportation (dab vans).
São Paulo grew quickly during the 1940s to the 1980s and many roads and buildings were quickly constructed without major planning. As a result, heavy traffic is common in the arterial avenues of the city, and traffic jams are relatively common in the arterial highways (mainly during floods). The main mean of commuting the city is the car and the bus.
Photo gallery of São Paulo's rail systems: http://urbanrail.fotopic.net/c318757.html
Ethnic diversity
São Paulo has a great ethnic diversity that can be compared to New York or Toronto:
- 3 million people are direct or indirect descendants of Portuguese.
- 3 million people are direct or indirect descendants of Italians. There is a building named Edifício Itália (Italy Building), in honor to the Italians. It was once the tallest building of the city (165m).
- 3 million people have direct or indirect African heritage.
- 1 million people are direct or indirect descendants of Japanese. São Paulo has the largest number of Japanese outside Japan.
- 1 million people are direct or indirect descendants of Germans.
- 350 thousand people are direct or indirect descendants of Lebanese.
Other considerable groups are:
Current critical problems
Since the beggining of the XX century, São Paulo has been the major economic city of Brazil. With the advent of the two Great Wars and the Great Depression, exportation of coffee to the US and Europe was critically affected, which led the rich coffee farmers to invest in industrialization in the city. This attracted many people from other regions of the country, especially 'nordestinos' (name given to the people who lives in the poor Brazilian Northeast). From a 32,000 habitants in 1880, São Paulo had aproximately 250,000 in 1900, 1,800,000 in 1940, 4,750,000 in 1960 and 8,500,000 in 1980. The effects of this in the city:
- São Paulo grew quickly and in a very disorganized manner. With no proper organization, the city grew without leaving much space for highways and parks. Until now, big traffic jams are relatively common in many roadways of the city.
- A very common scene (that can still be seen today) is of 'nordestinos' arriving in packed buses, in the Bus Terminal of the city, in the search of a better life (ironically, it is also common nowadays to see these same buses to carry 'nordestinos' back to their homeland). Many of these people don't find a job, many of them do not have any kind of education (most are illiterate), and most, when realizing that their dream of a better life is over, don't have the money to go back, and stay in the city. Many go to 'favelas' (very poor communities in the suburbs of the city), and others live in the streets (as homeless). Aproximately 1,500,000 people now live in favelas.
- Crime increased, and kidnappings and robbery are relatively common in the city. Many hate crimes were committed by people who discriminate against 'nordestinos' (who are commonlly associated with the high criminality in the city).
- Floods are common nowadays in São Paulo. This is due to the fact that the city grew in so unorganized a way that the ground where the city lies was made impermeable. Rainwater does not have anywhere to go (other than the small rivers that crosses the city) and water accumulates quickly.
- São Paulo is the Brazilian London. Polution is high in the air and the Tiête River, which crosses the river, is critically polluted (like the Thames was in London).
- The city has so many high-rise buildings that the city is sometimes called 'Selva de Pedra' (Stone Forest). Although the city has lots of parks spread over the city, the per capita green area of São Paulo is very small. This fact, together with the high criminality, led to a reclusion in the lives of many people in the city. Condos equipped with cameras and homes and apartments with windows equipped with bars are standard in the city and Shopping Centers are the main entertainment to middle-class people (which are afraid to go to open areas or any other that they may think that is not safe enough for them).
Major Holidays
External links
Photographs
- Virtual postcards (http://anhembi.terra.com.br/turismo/eng/) (requires to locate and click on the option entitled "postcards")
- Brazil Skyscrapers (http://www.brazilskyscrapers.hpg.com.br) - Many Photos of São Paulo and its skyscrapers
- A very complete photo album (http://members.aol.com/pochetti5/sampa-brazil.html)
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