Sao Paulo Tourist Information

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Sao Paulo Tourist Information

"São Paulo

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil and South America, and is the 7th out of the largest metropolitan regions of the world. The city is the capital of the State of São Paulo, the most populous Brazilian state. It is also the richest city of Brazil. The name means Saint Paul in Portuguese. São Paulo exerts strong regional influence in commerce and finance as well as arts and entertainment.

The city has many renowned landmarks. The Immigrant's Hostel greeted millions of immigrants as they came to Brazil in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Paulista Avenue, in Downtown, is the most important financial center of the country and South America. The city is home to the São Paulo Stock Exchange (BOVESPA). São Paulo has been home to several of the tallest buildings in Brazil, including the Mirante do Vale Building.

With an estimated population of 11,105,249 residents within an area of 1,523 square kilometres (588 sq mi), São Paulo is the most populous city in the Southern hemisphere.

The city also lies at the center of the heavily urbanized São Paulo metropolitan area, which, with an estimated 21,616,060 people in 2008 over 7,944 square kilometres (3,067.2 sq mi), is the largest metropolitan area in the nation. Depending on which definition is used, the São Paulo metropolitan area is ranked as either the first or second most populous in the Americas.

People from the city of São Paulo are known as paulistanos, while paulistas designates anyone from the whole of São Paulo state, including the paulistanos. The city's Latin motto, which it has shared with the battleship and the aircraft carrier named after it, is Non ducor, duco, which translates as "I am not led, I lead". A famous nickname for the city is "Sampa". São Paulo is also known for its unreliable weather, the size of its helicopter fleet, architecture and multitude of skyscrapers. The São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport operates many domestic and international flights.

Geography

Physical setting

São Paulo is located on a plateau that is part of the Serra do Mar (Portuguese for "Sea Range"), itself a component of the vast region known as the Brazilian Highlands, with an average elevation of around 799 metres (2,620 ft) above sea level - though at a distance of only about 70 kilometers (43 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean. This distance is covered by two highways, the Anchieta and the Imigrantes, (see "Transportation" section below) that roll down the range, leading to the port city of Santos and the beach resort of Guarujá. Rolling terrain prevails within the urbanized areas of São Paulo except in the North of the city, where the Serra da Cantareira Range boasts higher elevations and a sizable remnant of the Atlantic Rain Forest. The entire region is very stable tectonically, and no significant seismic activity has ever been recorded.

The Tietê River, and its tributary, the Pinheiros River were once important sources of fresh water and leisure for São Paulo, only to become grossly polluted by raw sewage and industrial effluents in the latter half of the 20th century. However, a substantial clean-up program for both rivers is underway, financed through a partnership between local government and international development banks such as the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. Neither river is navigable in the stretch that flows through the city, although water transportation becomes increasingly important on the river Tietê further downstream (towards South, near river Paraná), as the river is part of the River Plate basin.

There are no large natural lakes in the region, but the Billings and Guarapiranga reservoirs in the southern outskirts of the city are used for power generation, water storage, and leisure activities, such as sailing.

The original flora consisted mainly of a great variety of broadleaf evergreens. Today, non-native species are common, as the mild climate and abundant rainfall permit a multitude of tropical, subtropical and temperate plants to be cultivated, with eucalyptus being especially ubiquitous.

Demographics

São Paulo is the most ethnically diverse city in Brazil. After the end of the African slave traffic in the country (1850), São Paulo started to replace the African manpower with immigrants in the coffee plantations. The pioneer in this new project was the senator Nicolau Vergueiro, who brought German, Swiss and Portuguese people to work in his own properties.

After the abolition of slavery (1888), São Paulo received large numbers of immigrants, most of them coming from Italy. In 1897, Italians were over half of the city's population. Portuguese, Spaniards, Germans, Japanese, Jews and Christian Lebanese and Syrians also came in significant numbers. From 1908 to 1950, many Japanese immigrants arrived. In the 1960s, Chinese and Koreans started arriving. In the mid-20th century, many people from the poor Northeastern Brazil started to migrate to São Paulo. Nowadays, there is a growing Bolivian community in the city.

As in all of Brazil, people of different ethnicities mix with each other, producing a multi-ethnic society. Today, people of 100 different ethnicities make São Paulo their home. The main communities, considering all the metropolitan area, are:

* 6 million Italians (including descendants).
* 3 million Portuguese (including descendants).
* 3 million Africans (including descendants).
* 1 million Arabs (including descendants).
* 400,000 Germans (including descendants).
* 326,000 Japanese (including descendants).
* 120,000 Chinese (including descendants).
* 60,000 Jews (including descendants).
* 60,000 Bolivians (only the immigrants).
* 50,000 Greeks (including descendants).
* 50,000 Koreans (including descendants).

Ethnically, São Paulo is made up of:

Ethnic groups     Number

White     7,000,000
Pardo (Brown)     2,600,000
Black     527,000
Asian     456,000
Amerindian     18,000

Religion

Religion     Percentage     Number
Catholic     68.11%     7,107,261
Protestant     15.94%     1,663,131
No religion     8.97%     936,474
Kardecist     2.75%     286,600
Buddhist     0.65%     67,591
Jewish     0.36%     37,500

Languages

As in all Brazil, the language spoken by the vast majority of the population is Portuguese. Due to the large influx of Italian immigrants, the Portuguese spoken in the city reflects a significant influence from the languages of the Italian peninsula, particularly from Neapolitan and Venetian.

The Italian dialects mixed with the countryside Caipira accent of São Paulo; some linguists maintain that the São Paulo dialect of Portuguese was born in Mooca, a neighborhood settled in the early 20th century mainly by people from Naples, Southern Italy.

Other languages spoken in the city are mainly among the Asian community: Liberdade neighborhood is home to the largest Japanese population outside of Japan. Although today most Japanese Brazilians can speak only Portuguese, some of them are still fluent in Japanese. Some people of Chinese and Korean descent are still able to speak their ancestral languages. However, most of the Brazilian-born generations only speak Portuguese.

English and Spanish are taught as foreign language in most schools, although only a small percentage of residents exhibit a high degree of fluency in either language."