São Paulo
Encyclopedia
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, the largest city in the southern hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere
The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...

 and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area
Greater São Paulo
The Greater São Paulo is a nonspecific term for one of the multiple definitions the large metropolitan area located in the São Paulo state in Brazil.-Definitions:-Metropolitan Area:...

, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among the five-largest metropolitan areas on the planet. São Paulo is the capital of the state of São Paulo
São Paulo (state)
São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil...

, the most populous Brazilian state and exerts strong regional influence in commerce and finance as well as arts and entertainment. São Paulo maintains strong international influence and is considered an Alpha World City
Global city
A global city is a city that is deemed to be an important node in the global economic system...

. The name of the city honors Saint Paul
Paul of Tarsus
Paul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...

.

The metropolis
Metropolis
A metropolis is a very large city or urban area which is a significant economic, political and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections and communications...

has significant influence nationally and internationally, in terms of culture, economy and politics. It houses several important monuments, parks and museums such as the Latin American Memorial, the Museum of the Portuguese Language
Museum of the Portuguese Language
The Museum of the Portuguese Language is an interactive Portuguese language — and Linguistics/Language Development in general — museum in São Paulo, Brazil. It is housed in the Estação da Luz train station, in the urban district of the same name...

, São Paulo Museum of Art, the Ibirapuera Park and the Paulista Avenue, which is the most important financial center of São Paulo. The city holds many high profile events, like the São Paulo Art Biennial
São Paulo Art Biennial
The São Paulo Art Biennial was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennial , which serves as its role model....

, the Brazil Grand Prix Formula 1 Sao Paulo
Brazilian Grand Prix
The Brazilian Grand Prix is a Formula One championship race which occurs at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Interlagos, a district in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.- History :...

, Sao Paulo Fashion Week
São Paulo Fashion Week
The São Paulo Fashion Week is a fashion event, held at Ibirapuera Park, in São Paulo, notable as "Latin America's pre-eminent fashion event," according to one report. It began in 1996, when the event was known as Morumbi Fashion Brazil. It won the current name in January 2001. Today, the event is...

, and the São Paulo Indy 300
São Paulo Indy 300
The São Paulo Indy 300 is an event in the IRL IndyCar Series, which opened the 2010 IndyCar Series season.The event was announced on November 25, 2009, as the first championship event for the series outside of North America and Japan, and the first American open-wheel race in the country since the...

.

It is home to the São Paulo Stock Exchange, the Future Markets, and the Cereal Market Stock Exchanges (the second largest stock exchange in the World, in market value).
São Paulo has been home to several of the tallest buildings in Brazil, including the building Mirante do Vale, Italia, Altino Arantes, North Tower
Torre Norte
Torre Norte is a skyscraper in São Paulo, Brazil. It is part of the Centro Empresarial Nações Unidas, located by the Pinheiros river at the Avenida das Nações Unidas. Its construction began in 1999 and was completed in 2000. Its 158 meters , 42 floors house the offices of several multinational...

of the UNSCOM (United Nations Centre Enterprise) and many others.

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
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 motto, which it has shared with the battleship
Brazilian battleship Sao Paulo
São Paulo was a dreadnought battleship designed for the Brazilian Navy by the British company Armstrong Whitworth. She was the second of two ships in the Minas Geraes class, and was named after the state and city of São Paulo....

 and the aircraft carrier named after it, is Non dvcor, dvco, which translates as "I am not led, I lead."

The city, which is also colloquially known as "Sampa" or "Cidade da Garoa" (city of drizzle), is also known for its unreliable weather, the size of its helicopter fleet, architecture, gastronomy, severe traffic congestion, and multitude of skyscrapers.

History

The first coastal settlement in Brazil, São Vicente
São Vicente, São Paulo
São Vicente is a coastal city of southern São Paulo, Brazil. Its estimated population in 2006 was 329,370 inhabitants.It was the first Portuguese permanent settlement in the Americas and the first capital of the Captaincy of São Vicente, now the state of São Paulo...

 was founded in 1532. It was the first permanent Portuguese colony in the New World. Twenty two years later the Tibiriçá Chief and Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

 missionaries Manuel da Nóbrega
Manuel da Nóbrega
Manuel da Nóbrega was a Portuguese Jesuit priest and first Provincial of the Society of Jesus in colonial Brazil...

 and José de Anchieta
José de Anchieta
José de Anchieta was a Canarian Jesuit missionary to Brazil in the second half of the 16th century. A highly influential figure in Brazil's history in the 1st century after its discovery on April 22, 1500 by a Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral, Anchieta was one of the founders of...

 founded the village of São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga
São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga
São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga was the village that grew into São Paulo, Brazil in the region known as Campos de Piratininga...

68 kilometres (42.3 mi) inland from São Vicente, on January 25, 1554. The clergymen established a mission
Mission (Christian)
Christian missionary activities often involve sending individuals and groups , to foreign countries and to places in their own homeland. This has frequently involved not only evangelization , but also humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged...

 at the Colégio de São Paulo de Piratininga, aimed at converting the Tupi–Guarani indigenous Brazilians
Indigenous peoples in Brazil
The Indigenous peoples in Brazil comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country prior to the European invasion around 1500...

 to the Catholic faith, as well as make it easier for the Portuguese crown to rule them.

Anchieta is said to have killed a native, which brings a degree of protest from Indian rights groups against his canonization by the Vatican. The Jesuits were later also often at odds with the Portuguese authorities, mainly the Marquês de Pombal, who eventually expelled them from Brazil for protecting converted natives in their missions. Located just beyond the Serra do Mar
Serra do Mar
Serra do Mar is a 1,500 km long system of mountain ranges and escarpments in Southeastern Brazil, which runs in parallel to the Atlantic Ocean coast from the state of Espírito Santo to southern Santa Catarina, although some include Serra Geral in the Serra do Mar, in which case this range...

 cliffs, above the port city of Santos, and close to the Tietê River
Tietê River
The Tietê River is a Brazilian river in the state of São Paulo.The source is in Salesópolis in the Serra do Mar, at 1,120 m altitude...

, the new settlement became the natural entrance from the South East coast to the vast and fertile high plateau to the West that would eventually become the richest Brazilian state.
São Paulo officially became a city in 1711. In the 19th century, it experienced economic prosperity brought about through coffee exports shipped from the neighboring city of Santos.

After the abolition of slavery
Lei Áurea
The Lei Áurea , adopted on May 13, 1888, was the law that abolished slavery in Brazil.It was preceded by the Rio Branco Law of September 28, 1871 , which freed all children born to slave parents, and by the Saraiva-Cotegipe Law , of September 28, 1885, that freed slaves when they reached the age of...

 in 1888, waves of immigrants
Immigration to Brazil
Immigration to Brazil is the movement to Brazil of foreign persons to reside permanently. It should not be confused with the colonisation of the country by the Portuguese, or with the forcible bringing of people from Africa as slaves....

 from Portugal, Italy, Spain and other European countries emigrated to São Paulo in order to "bleach the race," as Luso-Brazilian authorities feared Brazil's black population would grow far more than other groups. These Europeans were granted lands as incentives to immigrate and some worked in an indentured fashion at coffee plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

s. Newcomers and their descendants ended up "making the America," as they said in Italian and Portuguese, and some of Brazil's greatest entrepreneurs have Italian, Portuguese, and German last names such as Mattarazzo, Diniz, and Mueller.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the coffee cycle had plummeted due to, among other factors, a sharp decline in international coffee prices. With the Wall Street Crash of 1929
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...

, coffee barons started losing their influence and status. The Paulistan economy
Economy of São Paulo
São Paulo is the 10th richest city in the world, and is expected to be the 6th richest in 2025. According to data of IBGE, its gross domestic product in 2006 was R$ 282,852,338,000, equivalent to approximately 12.26% of the Brazilian GDP and 36% of all production of goods and services of the State...

 looked for other alternatives such as sugar cane and the production of alcohol.

With the difficulties brought about by World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, when industrialized items had difficultly reaching Brazil, and following the national incipient trend of import-substitution, São Paulo began industrializing for domestic consumption
Consumption (economics)
Consumption is a common concept in economics, and gives rise to derived concepts such as consumer debt. Generally, consumption is defined in part by comparison to production. But the precise definition can vary because different schools of economists define production quite differently...

. Brazil already showed a pattern of huge importation of most fashionable and manufactured products from Europe, which was maintained well into the late 20th century, and created huge trade deficits despite substantial coffee and sugar exports.

Local entrepreneurs then started investing in the industrial development
Industrialisation
Industrialization is the process of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one...

 of São Paulo, attracting new contingents of immigrants to the city, mainly Italians
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

. In addition to Europeans
White Brazilian
White Brazilians make up 48.4% of Brazil's population, or around 92 million people, according to the IBGE's 2008 PNAD . Whites are present in the entire territory of Brazil, although the main concentrations are found in the South and Southeastern parts of the country...

, Japanese and Syrian and Lebanese
Arab Brazilian
An Arab Brazilian is a Brazilian citizen born in an Arabic country, or a Brazilian-born person of Arab descent, who is aware of such ancestry and remains connected, in some degree, to Arabic culture.- Immigration to Brazil :...

 immigrants arrived in large numbers in the first half of the 20th century. Along the 20th century, the booming economy of the city also attracted huge waves of migrants from the poorest regions in Brazil, such as the Northeast
Northeast Region, Brazil
The Northeast Region of Brazil is composed of the following states: Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia, and it represents 18.26% of the Brazilian territory....

.

São Paulo maintained a high economic growth
Economic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...

 rate through the 1920s, driven by interrelated streams of immigration, rapid industrialization, and investment. In the early 1920s the Sampaio Moreira Building reached an unprecedented 14 stories, and by the end of the decade the Martinelli Building attained more than twice that height. Growing fleets of automobiles and diesel bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

es allowed hordes of service workers to commute from their outlying homes to jobs
Job (role)
A job is a regular activity performed in exchange for payment. A person usually begins a job by becoming an employee, volunteering, or starting a business. The duration of a job may range from an hour to a lifetime . If a person is trained for a certain type of job, they may have a profession...

 in the city center.

However, due to competition with many other Brazilian cities, which sometimes offer tax advantages for companies to locate manufacturing plants there, São Paulo's main economic activities have gradually left its industrial profile in favour of the services industry in the late 20th century. The city is home to a large number of local and international banking offices, law firms, multinational companies and consumer services.
Although a modern face had emerged in São Paulo's better areas by the 1930s, larger portions were basically unchanged. São Paulo had lacked any city plan before 1889, and no zoning
Zoning
Zoning is a device of land use planning used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...

 law was passed until 1972. Indeed, well into the 20th century much of the city retained a colonial aspect, with narrow unpaved streets, shabby buildings, and a few old churches of Jesuit and Franciscan styles.

In 1924 the city was bombed during the Tenente revolts. Between 1920 and 1940 the population more than doubled, reaching 1.3 million. Although Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

 had itself grown spectacularly during this period, São Paulo trailed it by only 460,000 inhabitants and would leapfrog ahead within two decades. During 1939–45 the engineer-mayor Francisco Prestes Maia built the multilane Avenida 9 de Julho and widened numerous other streets despite resistance from displaced residents.

By 1947 the new star of São Paulo's skyline
Skyline
A skyline is the overall or partial view of a city's tall buildings and structures consisting of many skyscrapers in front of the sky in the background. It can also be described as the artificial horizon that a city's overall structure creates. Skylines serve as a kind of fingerprint of a city, as...

 was the São Paulo State Bank building, and, starting with the Mário de Andrade Municipal Library, the city's architecture moved beyond the short period of Art Deco design. By 1950 São Paulo had grown to a metropolis
Metropolis
A metropolis is a very large city or urban area which is a significant economic, political and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections and communications...

 of 2.2 million compared to Rio's 2.4 million, but a decade later São Paulo led with 3.7 million to Rio's 3.3 million, thus solidifying its reputation as one of the world's most dynamic urban centres
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...

.
Famed architect Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho is a Brazilian architect specializing in international modern architecture...

 was lured from Rio to design the sinuous curves of the Copan Building, and the Itália Building became its towering neighbour. The highly imaginative São Paulo Art Museum (begun in 1956 and completed in 1968) was built over the juncture of Avenida 9 de Julho and eight-lane Avenida Paulista.

In the 1960s São Paulo came to include almost half of the population of the State of São Paulo
São Paulo (state)
São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil...

 (Brazil's most populous state) and to account for about one-third of the country's total industrial employment. Because automobiles were becoming a São Paulo family staple, expressways were built along the canalized Tietê and Pinheiros rivers in 1967, and the Bandeirantes expressway provided access to the city center.

Highway expansion continues to be an ongoing process because the roads running alongside the rivers are among the heaviest used in the country. However, no amount of highway construction and street widening could more than briefly alleviate the intolerable traffic congestion. Construction of a subway system was begun in the late 1960s in hopes of improving the situation, and new subway lines continue to be expanded and added and enhanced.

Despite its many woes, São Paulo remains a business hub of Latin America. Having prospered first with the coffee industry, and later with industrialization, in the early 21st century it expanded into the tertiary, or services sector. Its huge market (about 20 million people in greater São Paulo) is a magnet for multinational corporation
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...

s.

Thanks to events such as the Feira Bienal Internacional de Arte, and its reputation for hosting cutting-edge
State of the art
The state of the art is the highest level of development, as of a device, technique, or scientific field, achieved at a particular time. It also refers to the level of development reached at any particular time as a result of the latest methodologies employed.- Origin :The earliest use of the term...

 music concerts, it has become something of a cultural center as well. Economic growth
Economic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...

 and exportation of goods has lifted employment and wages. The murder rate has dropped by almost a quarter since its peak.

The historic center profited with the return of the city's government and the arrival of private universities
Private university
Private universities are universities not operated by governments, although many receive public subsidies, especially in the form of tax breaks and public student loans and grants. Depending on their location, private universities may be subject to government regulation. Private universities are...

, although businesses continue to move out to new boom neighborhoods such as Itaim and Berrini. São Paulo also claims to attract more visitors (mostly, but no longer exclusively, on business) than Rio de Janeiro, testimony of the intense rivalry between the two metropolises.

Physical setting

São Paulo is located in Southeastern Brazil
Southeast Region, Brazil
The Southeast Region of Brazil is composed by the states of Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. It is the richest region of the country, responsible for approximately 60% of the Brazilian GDP. São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais are three richest states of Brazil,...

, in southeastern São Paulo State, approximately halfway between Curitiba
Curitiba
Curitiba is the capital of the Brazilian state of Paraná. It is the largest city with the biggest economy of both Paraná and southern Brazil. The population of Curitiba numbers approximately 1.75 million people and the latest GDP figures for the city surpass US$61 billion according to...

 (Capital of Paraná State, previously part of São Paulo State) and Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

 (former capital of Brazil and now capital of the State which bears the same name). The city is located on a plateau
Plateau
In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...

 located within the Serra do Mar
Serra do Mar
Serra do Mar is a 1,500 km long system of mountain ranges and escarpments in Southeastern Brazil, which runs in parallel to the Atlantic Ocean coast from the state of Espírito Santo to southern Santa Catarina, although some include Serra Geral in the Serra do Mar, in which case this range...

 (Portuguese for "Sea Range"), itself a component of the vast region known as the Brazilian Highlands
Brazilian Highlands
The Brazilian Highlands or Brazilian Plateau are an extensive geographical region, covering most of the eastern, southern and central portions of Brazil, in all approximately half of the country's land area, or some 4,500,000 km²...

, with an average elevation of around 799 metres (2,621.4 ft) above sea level
Above mean sea level
The term above mean sea level refers to the elevation or altitude of any object, relative to the average sea level datum. AMSL is used extensively in radio by engineers to determine the coverage area a station will be able to reach...

, although being at a distance of only about 70 kilometres (43.5 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

. This distance is covered by two highways, the Anchieta
Rodovia Anchieta
Rodovia Anchieta is a highway connection between São Paulo and the Atlantic coast, the cities of Cubatão and Santos, in Brazil...

 and the Imigrantes
Rodovia dos Imigrantes
Rodovia dos Imigrantes is a highway in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.The highway connects the city of São Paulo to the Atlantic coast and with the seaside cities of São Vicente and Praia Grande. It follows the route of Rodovia Anchieta and is also one of Brazil's busiest highways, particularly on...

, (see "Transportation" section below) that roll down the range, leading to the port city of Santos and the beach resort of Guarujá
Guarujá
Guarujá is a municipality in the São Paulo state of Brazil. The population in 2006 was 305,171, the population density is 1,969.47/km² and the area is 143 km². This place name comes from the Tupi language, and mean "narrow path". The population is highly urbanized.-Geography:Guarujá is...

. Rolling terrain prevails within the urbanized areas of São Paulo except in the northern area of the city, where the Serra da Cantareira
Serra da Cantareira
The Serra da Cantareira is a Brazilian mountain range to the north of the city of São Paulo in the São Paulo state. It is the second largest native urban forest in the world. The Pico do Jaraguá, São Paulo's highest point, is located there. This is also the place where the famous Brazilian band...

 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
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...

 has ever been recorded.
The Tietê River
Tietê River
The Tietê River is a Brazilian river in the state of São Paulo.The source is in Salesópolis in the Serra do Mar, at 1,120 m altitude...

, and its tributary, the Pinheiros River
Pinheiros River
The Pinheiros River is an tributary of the Tietê River that runs through the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Until 1920, the river was known as Jurubatuba. After being channelized its name was changed to Pinheiros. In southern São Paulo the Pinheiros River is impounded in Billings Reservoir.-See...

, were once important sources of fresh water
Freshwater
Fresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and...

 and leisure for São Paulo. However, heavy industrial effluents and wastewater discharges in the later 20th century caused the rivers to become heavily polluted
Water pollution
Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies . Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds....

. A substantial clean-up program for both rivers is underway, financed through a partnership between local government and international development
International development
International development or global development is a concept that lacks a universally accepted definition, but it is most used in a holistic and multi-disciplinary context of human development — the development of greater quality of life for humans...

 banks such as the Japan Bank for International Cooperation
Japan Bank for International Cooperation
The , also known by its acronym, JBIC, is a Japanese public financial institution and export credit agency, and was created on October 1, 1999, through the merging of the Japan Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund ....

. Neither river is navigable in the stretch that flows through the city, although water transportation
Water transportation
Water transportation is the intentional movement of water over large distances. Methods of transportation fall into three categories:* Aqueducts, which include pipelines, canals, and tunnels,...

 becomes increasingly important on the Tietê river further downstream (towards South, near river Paraná
Paraná River
The Paraná River is a river in south Central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina for some . It is second in length only to the Amazon River among South American rivers. The name Paraná is an abbreviation of the phrase "para rehe onáva", which comes from the Tupi language...

), as the river is part of the River Plate
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...

 basin.

There are no large natural lakes in the region, but the Billings and Guarapiranga
Guarapiranga
The Reservoir of Guarapiranga is a reservoir in the southern area of the city of São Paulo, in the State of São Paulo, Brazil.-Construction:...

 reservoirs in the southern outskirts of the city are used for power generation
Electricity generation
Electricity generation is the process of generating electric energy from other forms of energy.The fundamental principles of electricity generation were discovered during the 1820s and early 1830s by the British scientist Michael Faraday...

, water storage, and leisure activities, such as sailing. The original flora consisted mainly of a great variety of broadleaf
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

 evergreen
Evergreen
In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...

s. Today, non-native species
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...

 are common, as the mild climate and abundant rainfall permit a multitude of tropical, subtropical and temperate plants to be cultivated, with eucalyptus
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of flowering trees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia...

 being especially ubiquitous.

Climate

The city has a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate
Humid subtropical climate
A humid subtropical climate is a climate zone characterized by hot, humid summers and mild to cool winters...

 (Cfa), according to the Köppen classification
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...

. In summer, mean temperatures are between 17 °C (62.6 °F) and 28 °C (82.4 °F), and 32 °C (89.6 °F) on the hottest days. In winter, are between 11 °C (51.8 °F) and 23 °C (73.4 °F), and 6 °C (42.8 °F). on the coldest days. The highest temperature recorded was 35.3 °C (95.5 °F) on November 15, 1985. and the lowest recorded was -2 °C on August 2, 1955, and on the same day -3.8 °C was recorded unofficially. The average temperatures throughout the year are similar to those of Sydney and Los Angeles. The Tropic of Capricorn
Tropic of Capricorn
The Tropic of Capricorn, or Southern tropic, marks the most southerly latitude on the Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This event occurs at the December solstice, when the southern hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun to its maximum extent.Tropic of Capricorn is one of the five...

, at about 23°27' S, passes through north of São Paulo and roughly marks the boundary between the tropical and temperate areas of South America. Because of its elevation, however, São Paulo enjoys a distinctly temperate climate.

Rainfall is abundant, amounting to an annual average of 1454 millimetres (57.2 in). It is especially common in the warmer months average of 219 millimetres (8.6 in), and decreases in winter, average of 47 millimetres (1.9 in). Neither São Paulo nor the nearby coast has ever been hit by a tropical cyclone
Tropical cyclone
A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a large low-pressure center and numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and heavy rain. Tropical cyclones strengthen when water evaporated from the ocean is released as the saturated air rises, resulting in condensation of water vapor...

, and tornadic
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...

 activity is uncommon. Snow flurries were reported officially only once, on June 25, 1918. During late winter, especially August, the city experiences the phenomenon known as "veranico" or "verãozinho" ("little summer"), which consists of a bout of unusually hot and dry weather, sometimes reaching temperatures well above 28 °C (82.4 °F). On the other hand, relatively cool days during summer are fairly common when persistent winds blow from the ocean. On such occasions daily high temperatures may not surpass 20 °C (68 °F), accompanied by lows often below 15 °C (59 °F).

Law and government

São Paulo's most recent mayors were:
Mayor Entry in Left Office in Political Party
Gilberto Kassab
Gilberto Kassab
Gilberto Kassab is a Brazilian politician, current mayor of São Paulo. His term ends in 2012. A civil engineer and economist, of Lebanese descent, Kassab took over from José Serra, after Serra decided to run for governor of São Paulo...

2006 Democratas
Democrats (Brazil)
The Democrats is a centre-right political party in Brazil, considered the main in the right-wing spectrum. Despite its former name , the party affiliates itself to the Centrist Democrat International, and the International Democrat Union. The name comes from its support to free market policies...

José Serra
José Serra
José Serra is a Brazilian politician, former secretary of state, congressman, senator, minister of Planning and Minister of Health, mayor of São Paulo and Governor of São Paulo state.-Background:...

2005 2006 PSDB
Marta Suplicy
Marta Suplicy
Marta Teresa Smith de Vasconcelos Suplicy is a Brazilian politician and psychologist. She was Mayor of São Paulo from 2001 to 2004 as a member of the Brazilian Workers' Party...

2001 2004 PT
Workers' Party (Brazil)
The Workers' Party is a democratic socialist political party in Brazil. Launched in 1980, it is recognized as one of the largest and most important left-wing movements of Latin America. It governs at the federal level in a coalition government with several other parties since January 1, 2003...

Celso Pitta
Celso Pitta
Celso Roberto Pitta do Nascimento was a Brazilian economist and politician. He is a Bachelor in Economics by Fluminense Federal University, master in Economics by University of Leeds and specialist in Advanced Administration by Harvard University.-Mayor:...

1997 2000 PPB
Progressive Party (Brazil)
The Progressive party is a centre-right Brazilian political party embracing conservatism and elements of populism and liberalism....

, later PTN
Paulo Maluf
Paulo Maluf
Paulo Salim Maluf is a Brazilian politician with a career spanning over four decades and many functions, including those of State Governor of São Paulo, Mayor of the City of São Paulo, Congressman and Presidential candidate. As of 2011, Maluf is on a second consecutive term as Federal Deputy...

1993 1996 PPB (PP)
Progressive Party (Brazil)
The Progressive party is a centre-right Brazilian political party embracing conservatism and elements of populism and liberalism....

Luiza Erundina
Luiza Erundina
- Political history :From 1980 to 1997 she was affiliated with the PT party . In 1997 she changed to the PSB party. Erundina served on the São Paulo city council from 1983-1987. From 1987-1988 she was a state deputy for the state of São Paulo. She was São Paulo's mayor from 1989 to 1992, and is...

1989 1992 PT
Workers' Party (Brazil)
The Workers' Party is a democratic socialist political party in Brazil. Launched in 1980, it is recognized as one of the largest and most important left-wing movements of Latin America. It governs at the federal level in a coalition government with several other parties since January 1, 2003...

Jânio Quadros
Jânio Quadros
Jânio da Silva Quadros , , was a Brazilian politician who served as President of Brazil for only 7 months in 1961.-Career:...

1986 1988 PTB
Brazilian Labour Party (current)
The Brazilian Labour Party is a center-right political party in Brazil founded in 1981 by Ivete Vargas, niece of President Getúlio Vargas. It claims the legacy of the historical PTB, although many historians reject this because the early version of PTB was a center-left party with wide support in...

Mário Covas
Mário Covas
Mário Covas Júnior was a Brazilian politician.Covas studied engineering at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo. He entered politics in his native city of Santos, in the state of São Paulo....

1983 1985 PMDB

Metropolitan region

The nonspecific term "Grande São Paulo" ("Greater São Paulo") denotes any of São Paulo's metropolitan area definitions. The legally defined Região Metropolitana de São Paulo consists of 39 municipalities in total, and a population of 19,889,559 inhabitants (as of 2010 National Census).

Because São Paulo is sprawling
Urban sprawl
Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land, high segregation of uses Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a...

 like Los Angeles, it has another definition for its metropolitan area. Analogous to the US's CSA (Combined Statistical Area
Combined Statistical Area
The United States Office of Management and Budget defines micropolitan and metropolitan statistical areas. Metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas consist of one or more counties...

) type definition of metropolitan area, it is the third largest city in the world with 27 million inhabitants (Complexo Metropolitano Expandido), behind Tokyo
Greater Tokyo Area
The Greater Tokyo Area is a large metropolitan area in Kantō region, Japan, consisting of most of the prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Tokyo . In Japanese, it is referred to by various terms, including the , , and others....

 and Jakarta, which includes 2 contiguous legally defined metropolitan regions, and 3 microregions.

Subdivisions

The city of São Paulo is divided into 31 subprefecture
Subprefecture
Subprefecture is an administrative division of a country that is below prefecture or province.-Albania:There are twelve Albanian counties or prefectures, each of which is subdivided into several districts, sometimes translated as subprefectures.-Brazil:...

s , each in turn divided into 96 districts. Locally, districts may contain one or more neighborhoods . The subprefectures are officially grouped into nine regions (or "zones"), taking into account their geographical position and history of occupation. These regions are used only in technical and governmental agencies and are not identified by any visual communication in the city.

There is also a geographic radial division established in 2007 by the mayor Gilberto Kassab
Gilberto Kassab
Gilberto Kassab is a Brazilian politician, current mayor of São Paulo. His term ends in 2012. A civil engineer and economist, of Lebanese descent, Kassab took over from José Serra, after Serra decided to run for governor of São Paulo...

. These geographical areas (historical downtown, extended downtown, north, south, east, west, northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest) are each identified with a distinct color in the buses and in the street plaques. These have no relationship with the subprefectures and districts, and, in some cases, the same district may be in two or more geographic regions.

Demographics

According to the 2010 IBGE Census, there were 10,659,386 people residing in the city of São Paulo. The census revealed the following numbers: : 6,824,668 White
White Brazilian
White Brazilians make up 48.4% of Brazil's population, or around 92 million people, according to the IBGE's 2008 PNAD . Whites are present in the entire territory of Brazil, although the main concentrations are found in the South and Southeastern parts of the country...

 people (64.2%), 3,123,218 Brown (Multiracial) people (28.8%), 736,083 Black
Afro-Brazilian
In Brazil, the term "preto" is one of the five categories used by the Brazilian Census, along with "branco" , "pardo" , "amarelo" and "indígena"...

 people (4.5%), 246,244 Asian
Asian Brazilian
An Asian Brazilian is is a Brazilian citizen of full or partial Asian ancestry, who remains culturally connected to Asia, or an Asian-born person permanently residing in Brazil. Brazil received many immigrants from Asia, both from Middle East and East Asia...

 people (2.3%), 21,318 Amerindian
Indigenous peoples in Brazil
The Indigenous peoples in Brazil comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country prior to the European invasion around 1500...

 people (0.2%).

In 2010, the city of São Paulo was the most populous city in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 and in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

.

In 2010, the city had 2,146,077 opposite-sex couples and 7,532 same-sex couples. The population of São Paulo was 52.6% female
Female
Female is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova .- Defining characteristics :The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon, is produced by the male...

 and 47.4% male
Male
Male refers to the biological sex of an organism, or part of an organism, which produces small mobile gametes, called spermatozoa. Each spermatozoon can fuse with a larger female gamete or ovum, in the process of fertilization...

.

São Paulo is the most ethnically diverse city in Brazil. At the end of the traffic of enslaved Africans in the country (1850), São Paulo
São Paulo (state)
São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil...

 started to replace the African manpower with immigrants in the coffee plantations. The pioneer in this new project was senator Nicolau Vergueiro, who brought many German
German Brazilian
A German Brazilian is a Brazilian person of ethnic German ancestry or origin...

, Swiss
Swiss Brazilian
Swiss Brazilian is a Brazilian citizen of full or partial Swiss ancestry, who remains culturally connected to Switzerland, or a Swiss-born person permanently residing in Brazil....

 and Portuguese immigrants to work in his own properties. The next waves of immigrants contained Italians
Italian Brazilian
-Italian immigration to Brazil:The Italian government claims there are 25 million Brazilians of Italian descent, which would be the largest population of Italian background outside of Italy itself. There are no actual surveys, or even verifiable calculations supporting such claims. According to...

 and Portuguese from the mid-19th century until the turn of the century. These were far more adaptable to coffee cultivation and became over time the largest immigrant communities in the state of São Paulo.

After the abolition of slavery (1888), São Paulo received increasingly large numbers of European immigrants, most of them coming from Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, followed by Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. In 1897, Italians
Italian Brazilian
-Italian immigration to Brazil:The Italian government claims there are 25 million Brazilians of Italian descent, which would be the largest population of Italian background outside of Italy itself. There are no actual surveys, or even verifiable calculations supporting such claims. According to...

 are over half of the city's population. Portuguese, Spaniards
Spanish immigration to Brazil
Spanish emigration peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and it was concentrated to Argentina and Cuba. Between 1882 and 1930, 3,297,312 Spaniards emigrated, of whom 1,594,622 went to Argentina and 1,118,960 went to Cuba...

, Germans
German Brazilian
A German Brazilian is a Brazilian person of ethnic German ancestry or origin...

, Japanese, Jews
History of the Jews in Brazil
A Brazilian Jew is a Brazilian person of Jewish ancestry or a Brazilian who has converted to Judaism....

 and Christian Syrian-Lebanese
Arab Brazilian
An Arab Brazilian is a Brazilian citizen born in an Arabic country, or a Brazilian-born person of Arab descent, who is aware of such ancestry and remains connected, in some degree, to Arabic culture.- Immigration to Brazil :...

 also came in significant numbers. From 1908 to 1941, many Japanese immigrants arrived. In the 1960s, Chinese
Chinese Brazilian
Chinese Brazilians are people of Chinese ancestry who were born in or have immigrated to Brazil. The Chinese Brazilian population was estimated to be approximately 151,649....

 and Koreans
Korean Brazilian
Korean Brazilian is a Brazilian person of full, partial, or predominantly Korean ancestry, or a Korean-born person residing in Brazil. The Korean population in Brazil, the largest in Latin America, is about 50,000.-History:...

 started arriving. In the mid-20th century, many from the drought-stricken Northeastern Brazil
Northeast Region, Brazil
The Northeast Region of Brazil is composed of the following states: Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia, and it represents 18.26% of the Brazilian territory....

 started to migrate to São Paulo. Nowadays, the city witness a large wave of Bolivian migration.
São Paulo City in 1886
Immigrants Percentage of immigrants in foreign born population http://images.paulocel29.multiply.multiplycontent.com/attachment/0/R77ApgoKCh8AADZQ6QY1/TESE_MARILIA_D_K_CANOVAS%20migrantes%20espanhois%20em%20sp.pdf?nmid=83153163
Italians  47,9%
Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

 
29,3%
Germans 9,9%
Spanish 3,2%


A French observer, travelling to São Paulo at the time, noted that there was a division of the capitalist class, by nationality (...) Germans, French, and Italians shared the dry goods sector with Brazilians. Foodstuffs was generally the province of either Portuguese or Brazilians, except for bakery and pastry which was the domain of the French and Germans. Shoes and tinware were mostly controlled by Italians. However, the larger metallurgical plants were in the hands of the English and the Americans. (...) Italians outnumbered Brazilians two to one in São Paulo.

Until 1920, 1,078,437 Italians entered in the State of São Paulo. Of the immigrants who arrived there between 1887 and 1902, 63.5% came from Italy. Between 1888 and 1919, 44.7% of the immigrants were Italians, 19.2% were Spaniards and 15.4% were Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

. In 1920, nearly 80% of São Paulo city's population was composed of immigrants and their descendants, and Italians made up over half of its male population. At that time, the Governor of São Paulo said that "if the owner of each house in São Paulo display the flag of the country of origin on the roof, from above São Paulo would look like an Italian city". In 1900, a columnist who was absent from São Paulo for 20 years wrote "then São Paulo used to be a genuine Paulista city, today it is an Italian city."
São Paulo City
Year Italians Percentage of the City
1886 5.717 13%
1893 45.457 35%
1900 75.000 31%
1910 130.000 33%
1916 187.540 37%


A research conducted by the University of São Paulo
University of São Paulo
Universidade de São Paulo is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian university and one of the country's most prestigious...

 (USP) shows the high ethnical diversity in the city: when asked if they are "descendants of foreign immigrants", 81% of the students reported "yes". The main reported ancestries were: Italian (30.5%), Portuguese (23%), Spanish (14%), Japanese (8%), German (5.6%), Brazilian (4.3%), African (2.8%), Arab (2.4%) and Jewish (1.2%).

Since the 19th century there is a migration of people from Northeastern Brazil
Northeast Region, Brazil
The Northeast Region of Brazil is composed of the following states: Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia, and it represents 18.26% of the Brazilian territory....

 into São Paulo. However, this internal migration grew enormously in the 1930s and remained huge in the next decades. The concentration of land, modernization in rural areas, changes in work relationships and cycles of droughts stimulated the high migration rate. The Northeastern migrants live mainly in hazardous and unhealthy areas of the city, in cortiço
Cortiço
Cortiço, or gueto , is a Portuguese term commonly used in Brazil and Portugal to describe an area of urban housing where many people live in conditions of poor hygiene and poverty. Some cortiços can be seen in big Brazilian cities such as São Paulo, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro,and Recife...

s, in various slums (favela
Favela
A favela is the generally used term for a shanty town in Brazil. In the late 18th century, the first settlements were called bairros africanos . This was the place where former slaves with no land ownership and no options for work lived. Over the years, many freed black slaves moved in...

s) of the metropolis, because they are cheaper housing alternatives. According to the 2000 Brazilian Census, there were 3,641,148 people from Northeastern Brazil living in São Paulo, about 20% of the city's population. According to another resource, the largest concentration of Northeastern migrants was found in the area of Sé/Brás (districts of Brás, Bom Retiro
Bom Retiro
Bom Retiro may refer to:*Bom Retiro, a district of the Brazilian city of São Paulo*Bom Retiro, a Brazilian city in the state of Santa Catarina...

, Cambuci
Cambuci
Cambuci is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. Its population was 14,439 and its area is 562 km². Its population as of 2009 is 18,256 by newest recalation. It is very popular among tourists....

, Pari and
Sé may refer to:*sé, the word 'he', or the number six in the Irish language.*Sé , a district of São Paulo, Brazil*Sé, Hungary, a village in Hungary*One of several parishes in Portugal:...

). In this area they composed 41% of the population.

Today, the city has the largest community of Italian and Portuguese descendants.

As in all of Brazil, people of different ethnicities mix with each other, producing a multi-ethnic
Multiethnic society
A multiethnic society is one with members belonging to more than one ethnic group, in contrast to societies which are ethnically homogenous. In practice, virtually all contemporary national societies are multiethnic...

 society. Today, people of many different ethnicities
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...

 make São Paulo their home. The main groups, considering all the metropolitan area, are: 6 million people of Italian descent
Italian Brazilian
-Italian immigration to Brazil:The Italian government claims there are 25 million Brazilians of Italian descent, which would be the largest population of Italian background outside of Italy itself. There are no actual surveys, or even verifiable calculations supporting such claims. According to...

, 3 million people of Portuguese descent, 1.7 million people of African descent
Afro-Brazilian
In Brazil, the term "preto" is one of the five categories used by the Brazilian Census, along with "branco" , "pardo" , "amarelo" and "indígena"...

, 1 million people of Arab descent
Arab Brazilian
An Arab Brazilian is a Brazilian citizen born in an Arabic country, or a Brazilian-born person of Arab descent, who is aware of such ancestry and remains connected, in some degree, to Arabic culture.- Immigration to Brazil :...

, 665,000 people of Japanese descent, 400,000 people of German descent
German Brazilian
A German Brazilian is a Brazilian person of ethnic German ancestry or origin...

, 120,000 people of Chinese descent
Chinese Brazilian
Chinese Brazilians are people of Chinese ancestry who were born in or have immigrated to Brazil. The Chinese Brazilian population was estimated to be approximately 151,649....

, 40,000 Jews
History of the Jews in Brazil
A Brazilian Jew is a Brazilian person of Jewish ancestry or a Brazilian who has converted to Judaism....

, 60,000 Bolivian immigrants
Bolivians in Brazil
Bolivians in Brazil are individuals of full, partial, or predominantly Bolivian ancestry, or a Bolivian-born person residing in Brazil. The governments of Bolivia and Brazil have begun to develop an agreement to regularize the situation of several thousand undocumented Bolivian immigrants in Brazil...

, 150,000 people of Greek descent
Greek Brazilian
A Greek Brazilian is a Brazilian citizen of full, partial or predominantly Greek ancestry; or a Greek-born person residing in Brazil.The Greeks started immigrating in the end of the 19th and throughout the early and middle 20th century, in an attempt to find a better, more prosperous life, as well...

, 250,000 people of French descent
French Brazilian
A French Brazilian is a Brazilian citizen of full, partial, or predominantly French ancestry, or a French-born person residing in Brazil. Between 1850 and 1965 around 100,000 French people immigrated to Brazil. The country received the second largest number of French immigrants to South America...

 and 50,000 people of Korean descent
Korean Brazilian
Korean Brazilian is a Brazilian person of full, partial, or predominantly Korean ancestry, or a Korean-born person residing in Brazil. The Korean population in Brazil, the largest in Latin America, is about 50,000.-History:...

.

Religion

Religion Percentage Number
Catholic 73.11% 7,107,261
Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

15.94% 1,663,131
No religion
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

8.97% 936,474
Kardecist
Spiritism
Spiritism is a loose corpus of religious faiths having in common the general belief in the survival of a spirit after death. In a stricter sense, it is the religion, beliefs and practices of the people affiliated to the International Spiritist Union, based on the works of Allan Kardec and others...

2.75% 286,600
Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

0.65% 67,591
Umbanda
Umbanda
Umbanda is an Afro-Brazilian religion that blends African religions with Catholicism, Spiritism and Kardecism, and considerable indigenous lore....

 and Candomblé
Candomblé
Candomblé is an African-originated or Afro-Brazilian religion, practised chiefly in Brazil by the "povo de santo" . It originated in the cities of Salvador, the capital of Bahia and Cachoeira, at the time one of the main commercial crossroads for the distribution of products and slave trade to...

0.46% 48,400
Jewish 0.36% 37,500


Source: IBGE 2000.

Languages

The language spoken by the vast majority of the population is Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

. Due to the large influx of Italian immigrants
Italian Brazilian
-Italian immigration to Brazil:The Italian government claims there are 25 million Brazilians of Italian descent, which would be the largest population of Italian background outside of Italy itself. There are no actual surveys, or even verifiable calculations supporting such claims. According to...

, the Portuguese spoken in the city reflects a significant influence from the languages of the Italian peninsula
Italian Peninsula
The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three large peninsulas of Southern Europe , spanning from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. The peninsula's shape gives it the nickname Lo Stivale...

, particularly from Neapolitan
Neapolitan language
Neapolitan is the language of the city and region of Naples , and Campania. On October 14, 2008 a law by the Region of Campania stated that the Neapolitan language had to be protected....

 and Venetian
Venetian language
Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken as a native language by over two million people, mostly in the Veneto region of Italy, where of five million inhabitants almost all can understand it. It is sometimes spoken and often well understood outside Veneto, in Trentino, Friuli, Venezia...

.

Italian dialects
Italian dialects
Dialects of Italian are regional varieties of the Italian language, more commonly and more accurately referred to as Regional Italian. The dialects have features, most notably phonological and lexical, percolating from the underlying substrate languages...

 are mixed with the countryside Caipira
Caipira
Caipira is a Brazilian Portuguese term used to designate inhabitants of rural, remote areas of some Brazilian states—it refers to the people of lesser schooling. It can be considered pejorative when used to describe others, but it can also be used as a self-identifier without negative connotations...

 accent of São Paulo. Some linguists maintain that the São Paulo dialect of Portuguese was born in Mooca
Mooca
Mooca from tupi mo-oka, meaning to build houses, is a district in the subprefecture of the same name in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Mooca today is about to reach the mark of 65,000 inhabitants, spread in . It is also considered one of the fastest growing districts in the city, experiencing over...

, a neighborhood settled in the early 20th century mainly by people from Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, Southern Italy.

The Italian influence in the accent of the inhabitants of São Paulo is more evident in the traditional Italian neighborhoods such as Bexiga, Mooca
Mooca
Mooca from tupi mo-oka, meaning to build houses, is a district in the subprefecture of the same name in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Mooca today is about to reach the mark of 65,000 inhabitants, spread in . It is also considered one of the fastest growing districts in the city, experiencing over...

, Brás and Barra Funda. The Italianism came from the contact of Italian with the Portuguese language and since it is an old influence, it was assimilated or disappeared in the spoken language of the city. In 2009, a councilman from São Paulo, Juscelino Gadelha, presented a project designed to transform Mooca's accent on "intangible property" of the city of São Paulo and then protected by law. If approved, the accent of people from Mooca will be preserved on recordings and transcripts. The local accent with Italian influences became notorious through the songs of Adoniran Barbosa
Adoniran Barbosa
Adoniran Barbosa, artistic name of João Rubinato , was a famous Brazilian traditional samba singer and composer.-Early years:...

, a Brazilian samba
Samba
Samba is a Brazilian dance and musical genre originating in Bahia and with its roots in Brazil and Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions. It is recognized around the world as a symbol of Brazil and the Brazilian Carnival...

 singer born to Italian parents who used to sing using the local accent.

Other languages spoken in the city are mainly among the Asian community
Asian Brazilian
An Asian Brazilian is is a Brazilian citizen of full or partial Asian ancestry, who remains culturally connected to Asia, or an Asian-born person permanently residing in Brazil. Brazil received many immigrants from Asia, both from Middle East and East Asia...

: Liberdade
Liberdade
Liberdade is the name of a district in the subprefecture of Sé, in São Paulo, Brazil. It is home to the largest Japanese community outside of Japan in the world and has been growing since the 1950s....

 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
Chinese Brazilian
Chinese Brazilians are people of Chinese ancestry who were born in or have immigrated to Brazil. The Chinese Brazilian population was estimated to be approximately 151,649....

 and Korean
Korean Brazilian
Korean Brazilian is a Brazilian person of full, partial, or predominantly Korean ancestry, or a Korean-born person residing in Brazil. The Korean population in Brazil, the largest in Latin America, is about 50,000.-History:...

 descent are still able to speak their ancestral languages. However, most of the Brazilian-born generations only speak Portuguese.

In some areas of the city is still possible to find descendants of immigrants that speak German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 (specially in the area of Brooklin paulista) and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

 or East European languages (specially in the area of Vila Zelina)

Statistics

  • Vehicles: 7,081,778 (June 2011)
  • Vehicles: more than 10,000,000 in Greater São Paulo
    Greater São Paulo
    The Greater São Paulo is a nonspecific term for one of the multiple definitions the large metropolitan area located in the São Paulo state in Brazil.-Definitions:-Metropolitan Area:...

  • Daily newspapers
    Newspaper
    A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

    : 34 (September 2008).
  • Foundation date: January 25, 1554.
  • It is considered the 20th ranked global city
    Global city
    A global city is a city that is deemed to be an important node in the global economic system...

    .
  • It has the largest fleet of helicopter
    Helicopter
    A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

    s in the world.
  • Urban area: 1,968 km² (760 mi²)
  • Air passenger traffic in 2010: 47,723,894 (Cumbica, Congonhas, Viracopos, Campo de Marte
    Campo de Marte Airport
    Campo de Marte Airport is the first airport built in São Paulo, Brazil, opened in 1919. It is named after Champ de Mars, in Paris, which in turn got its name from Campus Martius, in Rome....

    , São José dos Campos), the largest in Southern Hemisphere.
  • Buildings: the city is the 3rd in the world in number of highrise buildings with 5,644, according to Empori's database.
  • According to Mystery Shopping International, the ninth most luxurious street in the world is located in the city, the Oscar Freire Street
    Rua Oscar Freire
    Rua Oscar Freire is a tree-lined street stretching from Alameda Casa Branca to Avenida Doutor Arnaldo in the Jardins district of São Paulo. It was named after Oscar Freire de Carvalho, a physician and forensic medicine professor from Bahia, who helped develop the city's first morgue .According to...

    .
  • Rail passenger traffic per day: 6 million passengers in the São Paulo metro
    São Paulo Metro
    The São Paulo Metro is the principal rapid-transit system in the city of São Paulo and the largest in Brazil. It is also the second largest system in South America and the third largest in Latin America, behind Mexico City and Santiago....

     and the CPTM
    Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos
    Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos is a commuter rail company owned by the São Paulo State Secretariat for Metropolitan Transports. It was created in 1992 from several railroads that already existed in Greater São Paulo, Brazil....

     (3.7 million and 2.3 million respectively).
  • Has the largest shopping center in Latin America, the Centro Comercial Leste Aricanduva
    Centro Comercial Leste Aricanduva
    Centro Comercial Aricanduva , also known as Shopping Aricanduva , has been described as the largest shopping mall in Latin America, and one of the largest in the world. It has 577 shops, 14 cinemas and 14,700 parking spaces. The mall has of built area, out of which is leasable space. The mall is...

     with 365000 m² (436,536.37 sq yd) of built area and 242300 m² (289,788.39 sq yd) of gross leasable area.
  • Has the largest hospital complex in Latin America, the Hospital das Clínicas of the University of São Paulo
    University of São Paulo
    Universidade de São Paulo is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian university and one of the country's most prestigious...

     with 352000 m² (420,988.5 sq yd) of built area.
  • Has five CBD: Paulista Avenue, Downtown São Paulo, Itaim Bibi
    Itaim Bibi
    Itaim Bibi is a district in the subprefecture of Pinheiros in the city of São Paulo, Brazil....

    , Brooklin Novo and Faria Lima
    Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima
    Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima, most commonly known as just Faria Lima, is an important avenue in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It is also an important commercial and financial center that rivals the downtown and Paulista Avenue areas...

    .
  • São Paulo is the 6th city with most billionaires in the world, drawn with Mumbai
    Mumbai
    Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

     with 21 billionaires.
  • According the PricewaterhouseCoopers the Greater São Paulo
    Greater São Paulo
    The Greater São Paulo is a nonspecific term for one of the multiple definitions the large metropolitan area located in the São Paulo state in Brazil.-Definitions:-Metropolitan Area:...

     is the world's 10th richest city in 2008 with one GDP PPP
    Purchasing power parity
    In economics, purchasing power parity is a condition between countries where an amount of money has the same purchasing power in different countries. The prices of the goods between the countries would only reflect the exchange rates...

     of $388 billion and will be the 6th in 2025 only behind Tokyo, New York City, Los Angeles, London and Chicago
    Chicago
    Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

    .

Economy

São Paulo is the 10th richest city in the world, and is expected to be the 6th richest in 2025. According to data of IBGE, its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2006 was R$ 282,852,338,000, equivalent to approximately 12.26% of the Brazilian GDP and 36% of all production of goods and services
Goods and services
In economics, economic output is divided into physical goods and intangible services. Consumption of goods and services is assumed to produce utility. It is often used when referring to a Goods and Services Tax....

 of the State of São Paulo. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest professional services firm measured by revenues and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms....

 annual economic growth of the city is 4.2%.

The biggest financial center in Brazil, São Paulo's economy is going through a deep transformation. Once a city with a strong industrial character, São Paulo's economy has become increasingly based on the tertiary sector, focusing on services and businesses for the country. The city is also unique among Brazilian cities for its large number of foreign corporations. Many analysts point to São Paulo as an important global city
Global city
A global city is a city that is deemed to be an important node in the global economic system...

, even though this categorization can be criticised considering its serious problems of social exclusion
Social exclusion
Social exclusion is a concept used in many parts of the world to characterise contemporary forms of social disadvantage. Dr. Lynn Todman, director of the Institute on Social Exclusion at the Adler School of Professional Psychology, suggests that social exclusion refers to processes in which...

 and spatial segregation. Despite being the most important financial centre of the country, São Paulo also presents a high degree of informality in its economy.

São Paulo has the largest concentration of German businesses worldwide and also considered the largest Swedish industrial hub alongside Gothenburg.

In 2005, the city of São Paulo collected R$ 90 billion in taxes, and the city budget was R$ 15 billion. The city has 1,500 bank branch
Branch
A branch or tree branch is a woody structural member connected to but not part of the central trunk of a tree...

es. There are 70 shopping malls. 63% of all the international companies
Company
A company is a form of business organization. It is an association or collection of individual real persons and/or other companies, who each provide some form of capital. This group has a common purpose or focus and an aim of gaining profits. This collection, group or association of persons can be...

 with business in Brazil have their head offices in São Paulo.
The São Paulo Stock Exchange (BM&F Bovespa) is Brazil's official stock and bonds exchange. The BM&F Bovespa is the largest stock exchange
Stock exchange
A stock exchange is an entity that provides services for stock brokers and traders to trade stocks, bonds, and other securities. Stock exchanges also provide facilities for issue and redemption of securities and other financial instruments, and capital events including the payment of income and...

 in Latin America where about R$ 6 billion (US$ 3.5 billion) are traded every day. The per capita income for the city was R$ 32,493 (2008).

According to Mercer
Mercer (consulting firm)
Mercer is a human resource and related financial services consulting firm, headquartered in New York City. The firm operates internationally in more than 40 countries, with more than 19,000 employees, and is the world's largest human resource consulting firm....

's 2011 city rankings of cost of living for expatriate employees, São Paulo is now among the ten most expensive cities in the world, ranking in 10th place in 2011, up from the 21st position in 2010, and ahead of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

Companies in Financial Times Global 500 of São Paulo in 2011
SP Corporation BRA World
1 Itaú Unibanco 3 52
2 AmBev
AmBev
Ambev formally Companhia de Bebidas das Américas is a subsidiary of global brewing company Anheuser-Busch InBev and is the biggest brewery in South America and the fifth in the world...

4 79
3 Bradesco 5 93
4 Banco Santander Brasil
Banco Santander Brasil
Banco Santander Brasil is a subsidiary of Banco Santander in Brazil, its largest division in Latin America and one of the world's most important, accounting for 25% of the total profit of the group...

7 175
5 Itaúsa
Itaúsa
Itaúsa is a Brazilian conglomerate company which controls several companies active in areas such as the financial and real estate sectors; industries including wood panels, pottery and metal; health; chemicals; and electronics...

9 255



Science and technology

The city of São Paulo is home to several important Research and Development structures in Latin America, and has been attracting a growing number of companies due to the presence of several regionally renowned universities.
The system of science, technology and innovation of São Paulo is leveraged by the allocation of funds from the state government
São Paulo (state)
São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil...

, mainly carried out by means of the Foundation to Research Support in the State of São Paulo (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo – Fapesp), one of the main agencies of promotion of the scientific and technological research of the country.

Luxury Goods

The luxury market in São Paulo is concentrated in the called 'luxury quadrilateral' whose vertices are the Cidade Jardim Mall, the area of Oscar Freire Street
Rua Oscar Freire
Rua Oscar Freire is a tree-lined street stretching from Alameda Casa Branca to Avenida Doutor Arnaldo in the Jardins district of São Paulo. It was named after Oscar Freire de Carvalho, a physician and forensic medicine professor from Bahia, who helped develop the city's first morgue .According to...

, the Iguatemi São Paulo
Iguatemi São Paulo
The Iguatemi São Paulo shopping centre is the oldest Brazilian mall in operation. Located in the Brigadeiro Faria Lima Avenue, in the Jardins neighbourhood, the shopping mall was opened in November 1966. Some organizations say that Iguatemi São Paulo is the first shopping mall to be opened in...

 Mall and the department store Daslu
Daslu
Daslu is a posh multi-brand boutique-department store in São Paulo, Brazil. The boutique is known as the "fashion designers mecca" of Brazil as it houses more than 60 labels plus 30 store-in-stores and is the place where Brazilian socialites, ranging from multi-millionaire soccer players to...

 and JK Iguatemi Mall, scheduled to open in March 2012, in the neighborhood Vila Olímpia
Vila Olímpia
The Vila Olímpia is an upper class neighborhood in the city of Sao Paulo, capital of the state of Sao Paulo, in the district of Itaim Bibi....

.

Sales of luxury goods in Brazil amounted to 8.9 billion dollars in 2010, according to GfK
GfK
The GfK Group, established in 1934 as Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung is Germany's largest market research institute, and the fourth largest market research organisation in the world, after Nielsen Company, Kantar Group, and IMS Health...

 Brazil, of which 70% of luxury goods are sold in São Paulo City and 95% of sales in the city are represented by 'luxury quadrilateral'. The Cidade Jardim mall, is a high-end mall, in Jardim Panorama, Morumbi
Morumbi
Morumbi is a district of the city of São Paulo belonging to the subprefecture of Butantã, in the southwestern part of the city. A common folk etymology attributes its name to the mixed Portuguese and Tupi phrase morro obi, which would mean "green hill", but this is disputed.Morumbi is between 9...

 district, with restaurants, cinemas, and boutiques, including Carolina Herrera
Carolina Herrera (fashion designer)
Carolina Herrera Carolina Herrera Carolina Herrera (born María Carolina Josefina Pacanins y Niño (born January 8, 1939) is a Venezuelan and naturalized American fashion designer and entrepreneur who founded her eponymous company in 1980.-Early life:...

, Chanel
Chanel
Chanel S.A. is a French fashion house founded by the couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, well established in haute couture, specializing in luxury goods . She gained the name "Coco" while maintaining a career as a singer at a café in France...

, Ermenegildo Zegna
Ermenegildo Zegna
Ermenegildo Zegna is a leading Italian fashion house, specialing in men's clothing. Founded in 1910, it is now managed by the fourth generation of the Zegna family and remains in family ownership. As well as producing suits for its own labels, it manufactures suits for labels such as Gucci, Yves...

, Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani is an Italian fashion designer, particularly noted for his menswear. He is known today for his clean, tailored lines. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, and by 2001 was acclaimed as the most successful designer to come out of Italy, with an annual turnover of $1.6 billion and a...

, Hermès
Hermès
Hermès International S.A., or simply Hermès is a French high fashion house established in 1837, today specializing in leather, lifestyle accessories, perfumery, luxury goods, and ready-to-wear...

, Longchamp
Longchamp (company)
Longchamp is a French leather and luxury goods company.Longchamp was founded by Jean Cassegrain in 1948, and the company employed individual craftsmen dispersed throughout the Loire valley countryside to create leather coverings for pipes and other products geared toward smokers. By 1955, it had...

, Montblanc, Rolex
Rolex
Rolex SA is a Swiss watchmaking manufacturer of high-quality, luxury wristwatches. Rolex watches are popularly regarded as status symbols and BusinessWeek magazine ranks Rolex No.71 on its 2007 annual list of the 100 most valuable global brands...

, Salvatore Ferragamo
Salvatore Ferragamo
Salvatore Ferragamo was a Florentine and Italian shoe designer. He worked with many Hollywood stars in the 1920s, before returning to Italy to found the eponymous company making unique hand-made footwear. His scientific and creative approach to shoes spawned many innovations such as the wedge heel...

, Tiffany & Co.
Tiffany & Co.
Tiffany & Co. is an American jewelry and silverware company. As part of its branding, the company is strongly associated with its Tiffany Blue , which is a registered trademark.- History :...

, Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton Malletier – commonly referred to as Louis Vuitton , or shortened to LV – is a French fashion house founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label is well known for its LV monogram, which is featured on most products, ranging from luxury trunks and leather goods to ready-to-wear, shoes,...

, Jimmy Choo
Jimmy Choo
Dato' Jimmy Choo, OBE, born Choo Yeang Keat, is a Malaysian fashion designer based in London, United Kingdom. He is best known for founding Jimmy Choo Ltd that became known for its handmade women's shoes....

, Emilio Pucci
Emilio Pucci
Emilio Pucci, Marquis of Barsento , was a Florentine Italian fashion designer and politician. He and his eponymous company are synonymous with geometric prints in a kaleidoscope of colours.-Early life:...

, Alexandre de Paris
Louis Alexandre Raimon
Louis Alexandre Raimon , better known as Alexandre de Paris, was a famous French hairdresser . He was responsible for creating Elizabeth Taylor's coiffure in the 1963 Hollywood epic Cleopatra . He also styled Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn and Lauren Bacall, among others...

 and Daslu
Daslu
Daslu is a posh multi-brand boutique-department store in São Paulo, Brazil. The boutique is known as the "fashion designers mecca" of Brazil as it houses more than 60 labels plus 30 store-in-stores and is the place where Brazilian socialites, ranging from multi-millionaire soccer players to...

 department store. The Italian Prada
Prada
Prada S.p.A. is an Italian fashion label specializing in luxury goods for men and women , founded by Mario Prada.-Foundations:...

, Fendi
Fendi
Fendi is an Italian high fashion house best known for its "baguette" handbags. It was launched in 1925 as a fur and leather shop in Rome, but today is a multinational luxury goods brand owned by LVMH...

, Canali
Canali
Canali is a clothing company based in Italy specialising in men's clothing.-History:In 1934, the brothers Giovanni and Giacomo Canali founded a tailoring workshop dedicated to the manufacture of high quality clothing. In the 1950s, with the contributions of the family's second generation, sales...

, Balmain
Balmain (fashion house)
Balmain is a fashion house that was founded by Pierre Balmain.In the period following World War II, Pierre Balmain was "a king of French fashion" and outfitted stars including Ava Gardner and Brigitte Bardot. His most famous client were Queen Sirikit of Thailand...

, D&G
Dolce & Gabbana
Dolce & Gabbana is an Italian luxury industry fashion house. The company was started by the Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana in Milan, Italy. By 2005 their turnover was €597 million....

, Tod's
Tod's
Tod's Group is an Italian company which produces shoes and other leather goods, and is presided over by businessman Diego Della Valle. It is most famous for its driving shoes....

, the Argentinian brands Etiqueta Negra and La Martina, the English Issa London, the French Twins for Peace, flagships of Dior
Dior
Dior can mean:* Christian Dior SA, a French clothing retailer* In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth legendarium:**Dior Eluchíl, a Half-elven of the First Age**Dior , a Steward of GondorDior is a surname, and may refer to:...

, Gucci
Gucci
The House of Gucci, better known simply as Gucci , is an Italian fashion and leather goods label, part of the Gucci Group, which is owned by French company PPR...

, Cartier
Cartier SA
Cartier S.A., commonly known as Cartier , is a French luxury jeweler and watch manufacturer. The corporation carries the name of the Cartier family of jewellers whose control ended in 1964 and who were known for numerous pieces including the "Bestiary" , the diamond necklace created for Bhupinder...

 and the new store of Chanel, a flagship store, will be installed at the mall in 2011 and in 2012. Louis Vuitton will have a new store, a global store with 1400 square metres (15,069.5 sq ft). According to the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, the store will be one of six major brand stores.

The Iguatemi
Iguatemi São Paulo
The Iguatemi São Paulo shopping centre is the oldest Brazilian mall in operation. Located in the Brigadeiro Faria Lima Avenue, in the Jardins neighbourhood, the shopping mall was opened in November 1966. Some organizations say that Iguatemi São Paulo is the first shopping mall to be opened in...

 Faria Lima, in Faria Lima Avenue
Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima
Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima, most commonly known as just Faria Lima, is an important avenue in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It is also an important commercial and financial center that rivals the downtown and Paulista Avenue areas...

, is the Brazil's oldest mall, opened in 1966. It is considered the 11th most expensive shopping area in the world, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Among the more than 30 international luxury brands are Burberry
Burberry
Burberry Group plc is a British luxury fashion house, manufacturing clothing, fragrance, and fashion accessories. Its distinctive tartan pattern has become one of its most widely copied trademarks. Burberry is most famous for its iconic trench coat, which was invented by founder Thomas Burberry...

, Emporio Armani, Hugo Boss
Hugo Boss
Hugo Ferdinand Boss was the founder of clothing company Hugo Boss.-Early life:Boss was born in Metzingen, Germany. After completing his apprenticeship and one year of employment, he founded his own company in Metzingen in 1923.-Support of Nazism:Boss joined the Nazi Party in 1931, two years before...

, Chanel
Chanel
Chanel S.A. is a French fashion house founded by the couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, well established in haute couture, specializing in luxury goods . She gained the name "Coco" while maintaining a career as a singer at a café in France...

, Bang & Olufsen
Bang & Olufsen
Bang & Olufsen is a Danish company that designs and manufactures audio products, television sets and telephones. It was founded in 1925 by Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, whose first significant product was a radio that worked with alternating current, when most radios were run from batteries...

, Bvlgari, D&G
Dolce & Gabbana
Dolce & Gabbana is an Italian luxury industry fashion house. The company was started by the Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana in Milan, Italy. By 2005 their turnover was €597 million....

, Diane von Fürstenberg
Diane von Fürstenberg
Diane von Fürstenberg, formerly Princess Diane of Fürstenberg , is a Belgian-American fashion designer best known for her iconic wrap dress. She initially rose to prominence when she married into the German princely House of Fürstenberg, as the wife of Prince Egon of Fürstenberg...

, Gucci
Gucci
The House of Gucci, better known simply as Gucci , is an Italian fashion and leather goods label, part of the Gucci Group, which is owned by French company PPR...

, Missoni
Missoni
Missoni is an Italian fashion house based in Varese. It is famous for its unique knitwear, made from a variety of fabrics in colourful patterns. The company was founded by Ottavio and Rosita Missoni in 1953.-Brands:...

, Christian Louboutin
Christian Louboutin
Christian Louboutin is a French footwear designer whose father is cabinetmaker Roger Louboutin and homemaker mother Irene. His siblings include three sisters, no brothers. Landscape architect Louis Benech has been his partner since 1997. Louboutin launched his line of high-end women's shoes in...

, Salvatore Ferragamo
Salvatore Ferragamo
Salvatore Ferragamo was a Florentine and Italian shoe designer. He worked with many Hollywood stars in the 1920s, before returning to Italy to found the eponymous company making unique hand-made footwear. His scientific and creative approach to shoes spawned many innovations such as the wedge heel...

, Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton Malletier – commonly referred to as Louis Vuitton , or shortened to LV – is a French fashion house founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label is well known for its LV monogram, which is featured on most products, ranging from luxury trunks and leather goods to ready-to-wear, shoes,...

, Ermenegildo Zegna
Ermenegildo Zegna
Ermenegildo Zegna is a leading Italian fashion house, specialing in men's clothing. Founded in 1910, it is now managed by the fourth generation of the Zegna family and remains in family ownership. As well as producing suits for its own labels, it manufactures suits for labels such as Gucci, Yves...

, Max Mara
Max Mara
MaxMara, or The House of MaxMara, is a luxury Italian fashion house known for its ready-to-wear clothing. Established in 1951 in Reggio Emilia by Achille Maramotti...

, Baccarat
Baccarat
Baccarat is a card game, played at casinos and by gamblers. It is believed to have been introduced into France from Italy during the reign of King Charles VIII , and it is similar to Faro and Basset...

, Swatch
Swatch
Swatch is a brand name for a line of wrist watches from the Swatch Group, a Swiss conglomerate with vertical control of the production of Swiss watches and related products...

, Tiffany & Co.
Tiffany & Co.
Tiffany & Co. is an American jewelry and silverware company. As part of its branding, the company is strongly associated with its Tiffany Blue , which is a registered trademark.- History :...

 and Swarovski
Swarovski
Swarovski is the brand name for a range of precisely-cut crystal and related luxury products produced by Swarovski AG of Wattens, Austria...

. The Oscar de la Renta
Oscar de la Renta
Oscar de la Renta is one of the world's leading fashion designers. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1973.-Career:...

, Bottega Veneta
Bottega Veneta
Bottega Veneta is an Italian luxury goods house best known for its leather goods. Founded in 1966, it was purchased in 2001 by Gucci Group, now a part of the French multinational group PPR. Bottega Veneta is headquartered in Vicenza, in the Veneto region of northeastern Italy.- History :Bottega...

, Marc Jacobs
Marc Jacobs
Marc Jacobs is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for Marc Jacobs, as well as Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line, with more than 200 retail stores in 60 countries. He has been the creative director of the French design house Louis Vuitton since 1997...

, Tod's
Tod's
Tod's Group is an Italian company which produces shoes and other leather goods, and is presided over by businessman Diego Della Valle. It is most famous for its driving shoes....

 and TopShop
Topshop
Topshop is a British clothes retailer with shops in over 20 countries and online operations in a number of its markets. Its sales come primarily from women's clothing and fashion accessories...

 will be installed at the mall in 2011 and 2012.

In Vila Olímpia
Vila Olímpia
The Vila Olímpia is an upper class neighborhood in the city of Sao Paulo, capital of the state of Sao Paulo, in the district of Itaim Bibi....

 neighborhood, is the Villa Daslu departament store. With 20 thousand square meters sells about 330 national and international luxury brands, as Valentino
Valentino SpA
Valentino SpA is a clothing company founded in 1959 by Valentino Garavani. Nowadays it is a part of Valentino Fashion Group. New creative directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli will take Alessandra Facchinetti's seat as creative designer...

, Ermenegildo Zegna
Ermenegildo Zegna
Ermenegildo Zegna is a leading Italian fashion house, specialing in men's clothing. Founded in 1910, it is now managed by the fourth generation of the Zegna family and remains in family ownership. As well as producing suits for its own labels, it manufactures suits for labels such as Gucci, Yves...

, Gucci
Gucci
The House of Gucci, better known simply as Gucci , is an Italian fashion and leather goods label, part of the Gucci Group, which is owned by French company PPR...

, Dolce & Gabbana
Dolce & Gabbana
Dolce & Gabbana is an Italian luxury industry fashion house. The company was started by the Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana in Milan, Italy. By 2005 their turnover was €597 million....

, Blumarine
Blumarine
Blufin S.p.A is an Italian fashion house founded by Anna Molinari and her late husband Gianpaolo Tarabini. The core brand is Blumarine, which they started in 1977, followed by Miss Blumarine , Blugirl and Anna Molinari , which is being repositioned as their luxury brand...

, Oscar de la Renta
Oscar de la Renta
Oscar de la Renta is one of the world's leading fashion designers. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1973.-Career:...

, Givenchy
Givenchy
Givenchy is a French brand of clothing, accessories, perfumes and cosmetics with Parfums Givenchy.The house of Givenchy was founded in 1952 by designer Hubert de Givenchy and is a member of Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture et du Pret-a-Porter...

, Balmain
Balmain (fashion house)
Balmain is a fashion house that was founded by Pierre Balmain.In the period following World War II, Pierre Balmain was "a king of French fashion" and outfitted stars including Ava Gardner and Brigitte Bardot. His most famous client were Queen Sirikit of Thailand...

, Manolo Blahnik
Manolo Blahnik
Manuel "Manolo" Blahnik Rodríguez CBE, , is a Spanish fashion designer and founder of the self-named, high-end shoe brand.-Biography:Born to a Czech father and a Spanish mother and born and raised in the Canary Islands , Blahnik graduated from the University of Geneva in 1965 and studied art in Paris...

, Chloé
Chloé
Chloé is a French fashion house founded in 1952 by Gaby Aghion. Its headquarters is in Paris.-History:Gaby Aghion was born in Alexandria, Egypt in the year 1921...

, Missoni
Missoni
Missoni is an Italian fashion house based in Varese. It is famous for its unique knitwear, made from a variety of fabrics in colourful patterns. The company was founded by Ottavio and Rosita Missoni in 1953.-Brands:...

, Moschino
Moschino
Moschino is an Italian fashion design house and manufacturer of women's, men's and children's fashion.-History:The brand was originally created in 1983 by the late Franco Moschino...

, Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen
Lee Alexander McQueen, CBE was a British fashion designer and couturier best known for his in-depth knowledge of bespoke British tailoring, his tendency to juxtapose strength with fragility in his collections, as well as the emotional power and raw energy of his provocative fashion shows...

, Karl Lagerfeld
Karl Lagerfeld
Karl Lagerfeld is a German fashion designer, artist and photographer based in Paris. He has collaborated on a variety of fashion and art related projects, most notably as head designer and creative director for the fashion house Chanel...

, BCBG Max Azria, DKNY
DKNY
DKNY is a label of fashion designer Donna Karan. It is also the name of a clothing store in New York City featuring Donna Karan's associated line.-History:...

, Paul Smith
Paul Smith (fashion designer)
Sir Paul Smith jr, RDI, is an English fashion designer, whose business and reputation is founded upon his menswear. He is both commercially successful and highly respected within the fashion industry....

, Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton Malletier – commonly referred to as Louis Vuitton , or shortened to LV – is a French fashion house founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label is well known for its LV monogram, which is featured on most products, ranging from luxury trunks and leather goods to ready-to-wear, shoes,...

, Tom Ford
Tom Ford
Thomas Carlyle "Tom" Ford is an American fashion designer and film director. He gained international fame for his turnaround of the Gucci fashion house and the creation of the Tom Ford label before directing the Oscar-nominated film A Single Man.-Early life :Tom Ford was born August 27, 1961 in...

, Goyard
Goyard
Goyard is a French luggage manufacturer established in 1853 by François Goyard , located on the rue Saint-Honoré in Paris.-History:François Goyard was born on 8 September 1828, in Clamecy, Burgundy...

, Sergio Rossi
Sergio Rossi
Sergio Rossi is an Italian fashion designer and distributor of women's shoes and handbags, as well as a limited range of men's shoes. The Sergio Rossi label is owned by the French conglomerate PPR.-Biography:...

 and Salvatore Ferragamo
Salvatore Ferragamo Italia S.p.A.
Salvatore Ferragamo Italia S.p.A. is an Italian luxury goods company, with headquarters in Florence, specializing in shoes, leather goods, and ready-to-wear for men and women. It is the parent company of the Ferragamo Group...

. In the surrounding area, is being built a future high-end mall JK Iguatemi, which will have brands such as Versace
Versace
Gianni Versace S.p.A. , usually referred to as Versace, is an Italian fashion label founded by Gianni Versace in 1978.The first Versace boutique was opened in Milan's Via della Spiga in 1978, and its popularity was immediate. Today, Versace is one of the world's leading international fashion houses...

, Balenciaga
Balenciaga
Balenciaga is a fashion house founded by Cristóbal Balenciaga, a Basque designer, born in the Basque Country, Spain. He had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as "the master of us all" by Christian Dior. His bubble skirts and odd, feminine, yet ultra-modern...

, Nicole Miller
Nicole Miller
Nicole Miller is an American fashion designer, businesswoman, mother and wife who was born in Texas and raised in Lenox, Massachusetts.Miller attended the Rhode Island School of Design where she earned a BFA in Apparel Design...

, Gucci
Gucci
The House of Gucci, better known simply as Gucci , is an Italian fashion and leather goods label, part of the Gucci Group, which is owned by French company PPR...

, Chanel
Chanel
Chanel S.A. is a French fashion house founded by the couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, well established in haute couture, specializing in luxury goods . She gained the name "Coco" while maintaining a career as a singer at a café in France...

, Ermenegildo Zegna
Ermenegildo Zegna
Ermenegildo Zegna is a leading Italian fashion house, specialing in men's clothing. Founded in 1910, it is now managed by the fourth generation of the Zegna family and remains in family ownership. As well as producing suits for its own labels, it manufactures suits for labels such as Gucci, Yves...

, Longchamp
Longchamp (company)
Longchamp is a French leather and luxury goods company.Longchamp was founded by Jean Cassegrain in 1948, and the company employed individual craftsmen dispersed throughout the Loire valley countryside to create leather coverings for pipes and other products geared toward smokers. By 1955, it had...

, Tod's
Tod's
Tod's Group is an Italian company which produces shoes and other leather goods, and is presided over by businessman Diego Della Valle. It is most famous for its driving shoes....

, Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent (brand)
Yves Saint Laurent or YSL is a luxury fashion house founded by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé. Today, its chief designer is Stefano Pilati. Yves Saint Laurent, founder of the brand, died in 2008.-History:...

, TopShop
Topshop
Topshop is a British clothes retailer with shops in over 20 countries and online operations in a number of its markets. Its sales come primarily from women's clothing and fashion accessories...

/TopMan
Topman
TOPMAN is the stand-alone fashion business counterpart of Topshop that caters exclusively to men’s clothing. A part of the Arcadia Group, which also owns Burton, Miss Selfridge, Wallis, Evans, British Home Stores and Dorothy Perkins, Topman has a chain of high-street men's clothing stores located...

, Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton Malletier – commonly referred to as Louis Vuitton , or shortened to LV – is a French fashion house founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label is well known for its LV monogram, which is featured on most products, ranging from luxury trunks and leather goods to ready-to-wear, shoes,...

, Burberry
Burberry
Burberry Group plc is a British luxury fashion house, manufacturing clothing, fragrance, and fashion accessories. Its distinctive tartan pattern has become one of its most widely copied trademarks. Burberry is most famous for its iconic trench coat, which was invented by founder Thomas Burberry...

, Lanvin
Lanvin (clothing)
Lanvin is a high fashion house founded by Jeanne Lanvin.-History:Lanvin made such beautiful clothes for her daughter that they began to attract the attention of a number of wealthy people who requested copies for their own children...

, Miu Miu
Miu Miu
Miu Miu is a high fashion brand from the Prada fashion house, opened in 1993 and headed by Miuccia Prada. The name of the collection is taken from Miuccia Prada’s nickname.-Stores:...

, Diane von Fürstenberg
Diane von Fürstenberg
Diane von Fürstenberg, formerly Princess Diane of Fürstenberg , is a Belgian-American fashion designer best known for her iconic wrap dress. She initially rose to prominence when she married into the German princely House of Fürstenberg, as the wife of Prince Egon of Fürstenberg...

, Goyard
Goyard
Goyard is a French luggage manufacturer established in 1853 by François Goyard , located on the rue Saint-Honoré in Paris.-History:François Goyard was born on 8 September 1828, in Clamecy, Burgundy...

, Polo Ralph Lauren
Polo Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren Corporation is a luxury clothing and goods company of the American fashion designer Ralph Lauren. Ralph Lauren specializes in high-end casual/semi-formal wear for men and women, as well as accessories, fragrances, home and housewares...

, Juicy Couture
Juicy Couture
Juicy Couture is a contemporary line of both casual and dressy apparel based in Arleta, Los Angeles, California founded by Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor in 1996...

, Kate Spade
Kate Spade
Kate Brosnahan Spade is the co-founder and namesake of the designer brand, Kate Spade New York .- Early life and beginnings :...

, Rimowa, Vicomte A. and Daslu
Daslu
Daslu is a posh multi-brand boutique-department store in São Paulo, Brazil. The boutique is known as the "fashion designers mecca" of Brazil as it houses more than 60 labels plus 30 store-in-stores and is the place where Brazilian socialites, ranging from multi-millionaire soccer players to...

.

The Jardins
Jardins
Jardins is the name given to an upper class region of São Paulo city, which includes the neighbourhoods of:* Jardim Paulista* Jardim América* Jardim Europa* Jardim PaulistanoAll are comprised within Pinheiros subprefecture....

 neighborhood, is one of the most sophisticated area of the city, where upscale restaurants and hotels are located. The New York Times has compared Oscar Freire street to Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive of Beverly Hills, California is a shopping district known for designer label and haute couture fashion. The name generally refers to a three-block long stretch of boutiques and shops but the street stretches further north and south....

.

In Jardins are Ferrari
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...

, Aston Martin
Aston Martin
Aston Martin Lagonda Limited is a British manufacturer of luxury sports cars, based in Gaydon, Warwickshire. The company name is derived from the name of one of the company's founders, Lionel Martin, and from the Aston Hill speed hillclimb near Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire...

, Bentley
Bentley
Bentley Motors Limited is a British manufacturer of automobiles founded on 18 January 1919 by Walter Owen Bentley known as W.O. Bentley or just "W O". Bentley had been previously known for his range of rotary aero-engines in World War I, the most famous being the Bentley BR1 as used in later...

, BMW
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...

, Bugatti
Bugatti
Automobiles E. Bugatti was a French car manufacturer founded in 1909 in Molsheim, Alsace, as a manufacturer of high-performance automobiles by Italian-born Ettore Bugatti....

, Maserati
Maserati
Maserati is an Italian luxury car manufacturer established on December 1, 1914, in Bologna. The company's headquarters is now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. It has been owned by the Italian car giant Fiat S.p.A. since 1993...

, Lamborghini
Lamborghini
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., commonly referred to as Lamborghini , is an Italian car manufacturer. The company was founded by manufacturing magnate Ferruccio Lamborghini in 1963, with the objective of producing a refined grand touring car to compete with established offerings from marques like...

, Jaguar
Jaguar
The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...

, Volvo
Volvo
AB Volvo is a Swedish builder of commercial vehicles, including trucks, buses and construction equipment. Volvo also supplies marine and industrial drive systems, aerospace components and financial services...

, Porsche
Porsche
Porsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE a Societas Europaea or European Public Company, is a German based holding company with investments in the automotive industry....

, Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...

, Pagani
Pagani
Pagani Automobili S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of sports cars and carbon fibre. The company was founded in 1992 by Horacio Pagani, and is based in San Cesario sul Panaro, near Modena, Italy.-History:...

, Land Rover
Land Rover
Land Rover is a British car manufacturer with its headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire, United Kingdom which specialises in four-wheel-drive vehicles. It is owned by the Indian company Tata Motors, forming part of their Jaguar Land Rover group...

 and Audi
Audi
Audi AG is a German automobile manufacturer, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand , positioned as the premium brand within the Volkswagen Group....

 dealerships; hotels as Tivoli, Porto Bay, Fasano, Emiliano, Renaissance
Renaissance Hotels
Renaissance Hotels is a worldwide brand of hotels and resorts. The brand is owned by Marriott International and many Renaissance Hotels are managed by Marriott; however, some are operated under a franchise license. Renaissance Hotels, Resorts and Suites cater to an upmarket segment of the traveling...

 and Unique; and one of the best restaurants in the world as D.O.M. and Fasano. In the Oscar Freire street and nearby streets as Haddock Lobo and Bela Cintra are the best brands of the Brazil and the world, include Bang & Olufsen
Bang & Olufsen
Bang & Olufsen is a Danish company that designs and manufactures audio products, television sets and telephones. It was founded in 1925 by Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, whose first significant product was a radio that worked with alternating current, when most radios were run from batteries...

, Bvlgari, Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry....

, Cartier
Cartier SA
Cartier S.A., commonly known as Cartier , is a French luxury jeweler and watch manufacturer. The corporation carries the name of the Cartier family of jewellers whose control ended in 1964 and who were known for numerous pieces including the "Bestiary" , the diamond necklace created for Bhupinder...

, Dior
Dior
Dior can mean:* Christian Dior SA, a French clothing retailer* In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth legendarium:**Dior Eluchíl, a Half-elven of the First Age**Dior , a Steward of GondorDior is a surname, and may refer to:...

, Emporio Armani, Ermenegildo Zegna
Ermenegildo Zegna
Ermenegildo Zegna is a leading Italian fashion house, specialing in men's clothing. Founded in 1910, it is now managed by the fourth generation of the Zegna family and remains in family ownership. As well as producing suits for its own labels, it manufactures suits for labels such as Gucci, Yves...

, Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani is an Italian fashion designer, particularly noted for his menswear. He is known today for his clean, tailored lines. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, and by 2001 was acclaimed as the most successful designer to come out of Italy, with an annual turnover of $1.6 billion and a...

, Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton Malletier – commonly referred to as Louis Vuitton , or shortened to LV – is a French fashion house founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label is well known for its LV monogram, which is featured on most products, ranging from luxury trunks and leather goods to ready-to-wear, shoes,...

, Marc Jacobs
Marc Jacobs
Marc Jacobs is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for Marc Jacobs, as well as Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line, with more than 200 retail stores in 60 countries. He has been the creative director of the French design house Louis Vuitton since 1997...

, Marina Rinaldi
Marina Rinaldi
Marina Rinaldi is a ready-to-wear, plus-size women's clothing brand of the Italian Max Mara Fashion Group, one of the best known of the company’s 35 different labels...

, Max Mara
Max Mara
MaxMara, or The House of MaxMara, is a luxury Italian fashion house known for its ready-to-wear clothing. Established in 1951 in Reggio Emilia by Achille Maramotti...

, Montblanc, Roberto Cavalli
Roberto Cavalli
Roberto Cavalli is an Italian fashion designer from Florence.-Biography:Roberto Cavalli was born in Florence, Tuscany. His grandfather, Giuseppe Rossi, was a member of the Macchiaioli Movement, whose work is exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery. Cavalli decided to enroll at the local Art Institute,...

, Salvatore Ferragamo
Salvatore Ferragamo
Salvatore Ferragamo was a Florentine and Italian shoe designer. He worked with many Hollywood stars in the 1920s, before returning to Italy to found the eponymous company making unique hand-made footwear. His scientific and creative approach to shoes spawned many innovations such as the wedge heel...

, Tommy Hilfiger
Tommy Hilfiger
Thomas Jacob "Tommy" Hilfiger is an American fashion designer and founder of the premium lifestyle brand Tommy Hilfiger.-Early life:...

 and Versace
Versace
Gianni Versace S.p.A. , usually referred to as Versace, is an Italian fashion label founded by Gianni Versace in 1978.The first Versace boutique was opened in Milan's Via della Spiga in 1978, and its popularity was immediate. Today, Versace is one of the world's leading international fashion houses...

.

Outside the 'luxury quadrilateral', is the Brooklin CBD. In this neighborhood some of the city's upscale hotels are located, such as the Hilton Hotel, Sheraton Hotels and Hyatt
Hyatt
Hyatt Hotels Corporation , is an international operator of hotels.Hyatt Center is the headquarters for Hyatt corporation...

, as other exclusive mall, the Morumbi Shopping. Other regions of the city also have luxury trade as Jardim Anália Franco (East Zone), Higienópolis (Central Zone), Alto de Santana
Alto de Santana
Alto de Santana is a name commonly used, especially by business, to refer to a Upper middle class area of Santana district in São Paulo city, Brazil...

 (North Zone), Alto de Pinheiros
Alto de Pinheiros
Alto de Pinheiros is a district in the subprefecture of Pinheiros of the West Zone of São Paulo, Brazil....

 (West Zone), Moema/Vila Nova Conceição (South Zone) and Alphaville
Alphaville, São Paulo
Alphaville is the commercial name of a real estate and gated communities development in Brazil and Portugal, constituted by a number of business and residential condominia. The name evokes the "first among cities" concept...

 (Barueri
Barueri
Barueri is a Brazilian city in the state of São Paulo located in the northwestern part of the Greater São Paulo metropolitan area. The population in 2006 is estimated to be 265,549, the population density is 4,149.2 per km² and the area of 64 km²....

 municipality, Greater São Paulo
Greater São Paulo
The Greater São Paulo is a nonspecific term for one of the multiple definitions the large metropolitan area located in the São Paulo state in Brazil.-Definitions:-Metropolitan Area:...

).

Urban planning

São Paulo has a history of actions, projects and plans related to urban planning and urban planning that can be traced to the government of Antonio da Silva Prado, Baron Duprat, Washington and completed by Luis Francisco Prestes Maia. However, in general, the city was formed during the twentieth century, going from village to metropolis, through a series of informal processes and irregular urban sprawl. Thus, differs considerably from São Paulo Brazilian cities like Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte is the capital of and largest city in the state of Minas Gerais, located in the southeastern region of Brazil. It is the third largest metropolitan area in the country...

 and Goiânia
Goiânia
-Climate:The city has a tropical wet and dry climate with an average temperature of . There's a wet season, from October to April, and a dry one, from May to September. Annual rainfall is around 1,520 mm....

, whose initial expansion followed determinations by a plan and a unique urban project, or a city like Brasília
Brasília
Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...

, whose master plan had been fully designed prior to construction of the city.

Moreover, the succession of peripheral settlements and the processes of rehabilitation and reconstruction of tissues already present, common in the city throughout its evolution, was possibly accompanied by urban plans that tried to sort the second planning guidelines informal logic of the constitution itself city. If the first interventions Prado punctual and Theodore had such plans sought, either sectorally integrated and sometimes isolated, setting standards to be followed in the production of new urban spaces and regulation of the above.

The historical effectiveness of such plans to comply with what they apparently were proposed, however, has been attributed by some planners and historians as diverse as questionable. On the other hand, some of these same scholars argue that such plans were produced exclusively for the benefit of the wealthier strata of the population while the working classes would be relegated to the traditional informal processes. In São Paulo until the mid-1950s, the plans submitted to the city even had a character Haussmann, or were based on the idea of "demolish and rebuild." May be cited as the plans submitted by former Mayor Prestes Maia São Paulo for the roads (known as the Avenues Plan) or by Saturnino de Brito for the Tietê River.

In 1968 the Urban Development Plan is proposed that would unfold in the Basic Plan for Integrated Development of São Paulo, developed during the administration of Figueiredo Ferraz. The main result has been what has become known as zoning laws and lasted until 2004 when he was replaced by current Master Plan. That zoning, adopted in 1972, we noted a clear protection calls Z1 (definition of areas whose use was residential and was designed exclusively for the elite of the city) and a certain vagueness of most of the city, classified as Z3 (loosely regulated as "mixed zone" but without clearer definitions about their characteristics). Thus, such zoning encouraged the growth of suburbs equipped for building low feedback processes coupled with speculation while valued regions in which it is allowed to build tall buildings.

Events

The city of Sao Paulo hosts approximately 90 thousand events every year, featuring arts, business, fashion and beyond. There are some Web sites and magazines specialising in the cultural
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

 events in the city, including the Agenda Cultural de São Paulo (São Paulo's Cultural Calendar).

São Paulo Pancake Cook-Off

The São Paulo Pancake Cook-Off is a popular cooking festival held annually in the city center. Thousands of amateur chefs from throughout Brazil migrate to the city every summer to compete with other chefs to see who has made the finest São Paulo Pancake. The most recent winner of 2011 was a certain Felipe Ramos, a Portugese National from the Isle of Madeira with his curry-flavored "Pestana Palms" Pancake.

São Paulo Art Bienal

The São Paulo Art Biennial
São Paulo Art Biennial
The São Paulo Art Biennial was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennial , which serves as its role model....

 is a cultural event hosted in town every two years. Almost 1 million people visited the 26th Biennial in 2004. Its theme was chosen to enable a wide range of artistic positions to feel comfortable. In addition, to an intensification of the North-South dialogue inside Brazil, the Bienal's aims include the promoting of links between non-European cultures along a South-South orientation.

São Paulo Fashion Week

São Paulo Fashion Week
São Paulo Fashion Week
The São Paulo Fashion Week is a fashion event, held at Ibirapuera Park, in São Paulo, notable as "Latin America's pre-eminent fashion event," according to one report. It began in 1996, when the event was known as Morumbi Fashion Brazil. It won the current name in January 2001. Today, the event is...

, established in 1996 under the name Morumbi Fashion Brasil, is the largest and most important fashion event in Latin America.

Brazil first entered the international fashion circuit with the increasing reputation of famous Brazilian top models such as Isabeli Fontana
Isabeli Fontana
-Early life and discovery:Fontana was born in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. In 1996 she made it to the finals of the Elite Model Look when she was just 13 and in the following year she moved from South of Brazil to Milan, Italy, to start her modelling career.-Career:...

, Adriana Lima
Adriana Lima
Adriana Lima is a Brazilian model, best known as a Victoria's Secret Angel since 2000, and as a spokesmodel for Maybelline cosmetics from 2003 to 2009...

, Gisele Bündchen
Gisele Bündchen
Gisele Caroline Bündchen is a Brazilian fashion model, occasional film actress and goodwill ambassador for the UN Environment Programme.In the late 1990s, Bündchen became one of the first in a wave of Brazilian models to find success...

, Alessandra Ambrosio
Alessandra Ambrosio
Alessandra Corine Ambrósio is a Brazilian model. Ambrosio is best known for her work with Victoria's Secret and was chosen as the first spokesmodel for the company's "PINK" line...

, Fernanda Tavares
Fernanda Tavares
Fernanda Tavares is a Brazilian model.-Biography:Born in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, Tavares was appearing in local shows at the age of nine, and at just 13 she won the "Elite Look of the Year" contest. A year later, she was invited by agents to go to São Paulo to pursue a modeling career...

, Ana Beatriz Barros
Ana Beatriz Barros
Ana Beatriz Barros is a Brazilian model known for her work with Guess?, bebe, Victoria's Secret, Chanel cosmetics, and Jennifer Lopez's JLO fashion line.-Early life and family:...

, Izabel Goulart
Izabel Goulart
Maria Izabel Goulart Dourado , better known as Izabel Goulart, is a Brazilian model. She is best known as one of the Victoria's Secret Angels from 2005 to present and for her work with Armani Exchange.-Early life and career:...

, Brenda Costa
Brenda Costa
Brenda Costa is a Brazilian fashion model and former swimmer. She was born on November 8, 1982 in Rio de Janeiro. Brenda Costa is 177 cm tall. Her model career started when she was 16 years old, after she was discovered in the Ipanema neighborhood by Agência Mega. Brenda Costa is placed 23rd...

, Ana Hickmann
Ana Hickmann
Ana Lúcia Hickmann is a German Brazilian model who has worked for Victoria's Secret, Nivea, L'Oreal, Clairol, and Bloomingdales...

, and Evandro Soldati
Evandro Soldati
Evandro Soldati is a Brazilian male model. According to Forbes, he was the 7th most successful male model in the world in 2008. Evandro is of Italian ancestry. Soldati appears in the music video for Lady Gaga's single Alejandro .He started modelling in 2002 when his mother signed him up for a Ford...

, and the "discovery" of some fresh talents such as Alexandre Herchcovitch
Alexandre Herchcovitch
Alexandre Herchcovitch is a Brazilian fashion designer. He's of Jewish descent, his grandparents emigrated from Poland and Romania.-Overview:...

 by some international fashion magazines.

São Paulo Gay Pride Parade


The first São Paulo Gay Pride Parade took place in 1987, and attracted a crowd, then impressive, of 20.000 people, but since then the event grows in participation, size and significance. The event is a tourist draw for the city, attracting larger and larger numbers of people, reaching around 2 million visitors in the last estimated official number available, from the 2008 parade. It is opened by the city's mayor, running along the Paulista Avenue, accompanied by several Trio Elétricos
Trio Elétrico
Trio Elétrico is a kind of truck or float equipped with a high power sound system and a music group on the roof, playing for the crowd. It was created in Bahia specifically for Carnival and it is now used in similar events in other districts and countries...

. The last parade, held on June 6, 2010, attracted about 3.5 million people according to official numbers, given by the Polícia Militar.
The Parade is an annual event, taking place in June, which aims to increase the visibility and social awareness of the community, as well as agitating against discrimination and in favor of positive legislation for homosexuals, bisexuals
Bisexuality
Bisexuality is sexual behavior or an orientation involving physical or romantic attraction to both males and females, especially with regard to men and women. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with a heterosexual and a homosexual orientation, all a part of the...

, transvestites
Transvestism
Transvestism is the practice of cross-dressing, which is wearing clothing traditionally associated with the opposite sex. Transvestite refers to a person who cross-dresses; however, the word often has additional connotations. -History:Although the word transvestism was coined as late as the 1910s,...

 and transsexuals
Transsexualism
Transsexualism is an individual's identification with a gender inconsistent or not culturally associated with their biological sex. Simply put, it defines a person whose biological birth sex conflicts with their psychological gender...

. Since 2002, the Parade has also become associated with a wider long cultural program, lasting at least a month.

March for Jesus

The March for Jesus
March for Jesus
March for Jesus is an annual interdenominational event in which Christians march through towns and cities.March for Jesus began as City March in London in 1987. It emerged out of the friendship of three church groups: Pioneer, led by Gerald Coates; Ichthus led by Roger Forster; and Youth with a...

 is an Evangelical parade that takes place on Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi (feast)
Corpus Christi is a Latin Rite solemnity, now designated the solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ . It is also celebrated in some Anglican, Lutheran and Old Catholic Churches. Like Trinity Sunday and the Solemnity of Christ the King, it does not commemorate a particular event in...

 Thursday every year in Zona Norte, or North Side. It is organized by Renascer em Cristo Church
Igreja Renascer em Cristo
The Igreja Renascer em Cristo or Reborn in Christ Church , which was founded in São Paulo in 1986 by Estevam Hernandes and Sônia Hernandes...

, a Neo-Pentecostal
Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...

 denomination created in the 1980s which has grown significantly in the first decade of the 21st century. In 2006, more than 2 million people took part in the event, according to official estimates. Evangelicals from across Brazil go to São Paulo on the holiday in June for the march, as live Christian bands lead the way. The annual march, organized by evangelical churches, features concerts with 30 Christian bands carried on 17 flatbed trucks performing live as participants march through Brazil's financial capital
Financial capital
Financial capital can refer to money used by entrepreneurs and businesses to buy what they need to make their products or provide their services or to that sector of the economy based on its operation, i.e. retail, corporate, investment banking, etc....

.

International Transport Industry Show

The Salão Internacional da Indústria do Transporte (FENATRAN) is held in São Paulo in the Park Anhembi, every two years and usually in October. It is a major event presenting new trends for the industry related to transport, such as truck manufacturers, components for vehicles, fuel
Fuel
Fuel is any material that stores energy that can later be extracted to perform mechanical work in a controlled manner. Most fuels used by humans undergo combustion, a redox reaction in which a combustible substance releases energy after it ignites and reacts with the oxygen in the air...

, motors and services for the industry, such as financial and insurance companies.

International Film Festival

The São Paulo International Film Festival
São Paulo International Film Festival
The São Paulo International Film Festival is a film festival held annually in São Paulo, Brazil since 1976. In 2004 Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami was a member of the jury.-International Jury Award:*2001: The New Country ...

 is a film festival held annually in São Paulo, Brazil since 1976. It is one of the most important Brazilian film festival along with Rio Film Festival and Brasília National Film Festival.

Electronic Language International Festival

The Electronic Language International Festival
Electronic Language International Festival
FILE - Electronic Language International Festival is a New media art festival that usually takes place in three different cities of Brazil: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre and it has also participated in others events around the world...

 is a non-profit cultural organization, whose purpose is to disseminate and to develop arts, technologies and scientific research
Scientific method
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...

, by means of exhibitions, debates, lectures, and courses. The festival promotes a yearly meeting in Brazil, in the city of São Paulo.

Festival of Electronic Art

Every two years, Associação Cultural Videobrasil's
Videobrasil
In 1983, despite the fact that electronic art had just arrived in Brazil, Associação Cultural Videobrasil organized the first edition of what would later become the International Electronic Art Festival, directed by Solange Farkas, gathering a whole generation of Brazilian pioneers...

 International Electronic Art Festival brings works by artists from all over the world to São Paulo. In keeping with the constant transformations in media and support, the curatorship has added installations, performances, VJs, CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....

 art, and Internet art
Internet art
Internet art is a form of digital artwork distributed via the Internet. This form of art has circumvented the traditional dominance of the gallery and museum system, delivering aesthetic experiences via the Internet. In many cases, the viewer is drawn into some kind of interaction with the work...

 to the programme
Programme (booklet)
A programme or program is a booklet available for patrons attending a live event such as theatre performances, fêtes, sports events, etc. It is a printed leaflet outlining the parts of the event scheduled to take place, principal performers and background information. In the case of theatrical...

. Art shows
Art exhibition
Art exhibitions are traditionally the space in which art objects meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhibition". In American English, they may be called "exhibit", "exposition" or...

, debates and meetings introduce new ideas and artwork, setting new guidelines for contemporary art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...

 in Brazil. Exhibitions featuring work by prominent electronic art
Electronic art
Electronic art is a form of art that makes use of electronic media or, more broadly, refers to technology and/or electronic media. It is related to information art, new media art, video art, digital art, interactive art, internet art, and electronic music...

ists are also part of the Festival. Brazilian pioneers such as Rafael França and Olhar Eletrônico, and international guests such as Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the first video artist....

, Bill Viola
Bill Viola
Bill Viola is a contemporary video artist. He is considered a leading figure in the generation of artists whose artistic expression depends upon electronic, sound, and image technology in New Media...

 and Gary Hill
Gary Hill
Gary Hill is an American artist who lives and works in Seattle, Washington.One of the pioneers of video art, Gary Hill has exhibited his video and video installations worldwide . He is represented by Donald Young Gallery of Chicago.An anthology on the work of Gary Hill by Robert C...

, have featured in the event's past editions. Each edition has a theme of its own.

Carnival

The Carnival of São Paulo is a traditional celebration carnival held every year in São Paulo. The parade of samba school
Samba school
A samba school is a club or dancing school. They practice and often perform in huge square-compounds devoted to practicing and exhibiting samba, an African-Brazilian dance. The schools are traditionally associated with a particular neighborhood, often shanty towns...

s in São Paulo is the Anhembi Sambadrome, designed by renowned architect Oscar Niemeyer, who also designed the Sambadrome of the sambodrome in Rio de Janeiro. The Special Group parade of samba schools of São Paulo happens on Friday and Saturday of carnival week, schools that participated in the carnival in 2012. Samba Schools: Unidos de Vila Maria; Rosas de Ouro; X9; Vai Vai; Águia de Ouro; Camisa Verde e Branco; Império de Casa Verde; Dragões da Real; Acadêmicos do Tucuruvi; Gaviões da Fiel; Mancha Verde; Tom Maior; Pérola Negra; Mocidade Alegre.

Virada Cultural

Virada Cultural is an annual event held since 2005 by the Municipality of São Paulo, promoting 24 hours of non-stop cultural activities held during the month of May, every year, always starting on a Saturday night and ending on a Sunday afternoon.
The event was inspired by the annual event named Nuit Blanche in Paris, with many cultural entertainment events throughout the night. The activities include music shows, dance shows, classical & orchestra presentations, theater plays, cinema, poetry, anime/comics fans meetings and acrobatic performances. The event takes place in several parts of the downtown area, as well as some cultural centers, clubs and selected schools. In 2010, according to São Paulo Municipality, the event attracted around 4 million people.

Other Events

  • X-Games - Brazilian branch, held in April.
  • É Tudo Verdade - Documentary film festival, held in March.
  • Feicorte - Livestock fair.
  • FIEPAG - International Printing Industry Fair
  • CIOSP - International Dental Congress
  • Skol Beats - Electronic music festival, features famous Brazilian and foreign DJs from around the world. Held in May.
  • Grande Prêmio São Paulo de Turfe - Equestrian competition, held in May.
  • Expomusic - Music and audio exposition, also features small shows and autograph sessions.
  • Feira do Circuito das Malhas - Winter clothes baazar.
  • In-Edit - Music documentary festival.
  • São Paulo's International Marathon - Held in June.
  • Saint Vitus Festival (Festival de São Vito) - Italian festival, featuring food and music. Held in June.
  • Anima Mundi - International Animation Film Festival, held in July.
  • Batuka! - Drummers festival, featuring workshops, presentations and a national contest.
  • Brasil Pack - International Packaging Fair
  • Japan Festival - Held in July.
  • Brooklinfest - German festival in October (district Brooklin Paulista).
  • Festa de Vila Zelina - Russian, Ukrainian and East European Festival in the district Vila Zelina.
  • Bolivian Arts and Culture Festival
  • Achiropita Festival - Italian festival, featuring food and music. Held in August.
  • New Year's Eve - Held at the Paulista Avenue, features free concerts and fireworks, usually gathering up to 1 million people.

Educational institutions

The city has several universities and colleges:
  • Universidade de São Paulo
    University of São Paulo
    Universidade de São Paulo is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian university and one of the country's most prestigious...

     (USP) (University of São Paulo);
  • Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP) (Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo);
  • Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de São Paulo (IFSP) (São Paulo Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology);
  • Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho
    Unesp
    Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho is one of the six public universities of the Brazilian state of São Paulo, with USP, UFABC, UNIFESP, UFSCar and UNICAMP. It's a part of the state’s higher education system.UNESP has a combined student body of almost 40,000 spread among its 23...

     (Unesp) (São Paulo State University Júlio de Mesquita Filho);
  • Faculdade de Tecnologia de São Paulo
    São Paulo State Technological College
    The São Paulo State Technological Colleges or FATECs are public institutions of higher education belonging to CEETEPS , governmental maintainer. The FATECs are important Brazilian institutions of higher education, being pioneers in the graduation of technologists...

     (FATEC) (São Paulo Technological College);
  • Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) (Federal University of São Paulo);
  • Universidade Nove de Julho (UNINOVE) (Ninth of July University);
  • Universidade de Mogi das Cruzes (UMC) (University of Mogi das Cruzes);
  • Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (MACKENZIE-SP) (Mackenzie Presbyterian University)
  • Universidade São Judas Tadeu
    Universidade São Judas Tadeu
    Universidade São Judas Tadeu is a Brazilian private, for-profit university based in São Paulo. Established in 1971 as a college offering two undergraduate courses , it only officially became a university in 1989....

     (USJT) (São Judas Tadeu University/"São Judas University");
  • Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing
    Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing
    ESPM is a Brazilian private higher education institution, founded in 1951 in São Paulo, by successful professionals in Advertising and Marketing, preparing new professionals at Management level in demand in the continue growing work market place...

     (ESPM-SP) (Superior School of Advertising and Marketing);
  • Fundação Getúlio Vargas
    Fundação Getúlio Vargas
    Fundação Getulio Vargas is a Brazilian higher education institution founded on December 20, 1944. It offers regular courses of Economics, Business Administration, Law, Social Sciences and Information technology management...

     (FGV-SP) (Getúlio Vargas Foundation);
  • Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP) (Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation);
  • Universidade Anhembi Morumbi
    Anhembi Morumbi
    Anhembi Morumbi is a Brazilian for-profit university located in São Paulo and owned by the Laureate Education Inc. It is known to be the first Brazilian university to offer a bachelor degree on Game Design...

     (Anhembi Morumbi University);
  • Faculdades Metropolitanas Unidas (FMU) (UMC, United Metropolitan Colleges);
  • Instituto Brasileiro de Mercado de Capitais (Ibmec-SP) (Brazilian Capital Market
    Capital market
    A capital market is a market for securities , where business enterprises and governments can raise long-term funds. It is defined as a market in which money is provided for periods longer than a year, as the raising of short-term funds takes place on other markets...

     Institute);
  • Faculdade de Comunicação Social Cásper Líbero (Cásper Líbero Social Communication
    Social communication
    The term social communication refers to using the so-called social media. However there is no standardised definition yet recognised. Generally communication requires a social nexus of at least two entities in a technical or just social relation...

     College);
  • Faculdade Santa Marcelina (FASM) (Santa Marcelina College)
  • and many others.


There are more than 578 universities in the whole state of São Paulo.

Educational system

São Paulo has a quite well developed system of primary and secondary, both public and private
Private school
Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...

, and a variety of vocational-technical school
Technical school
Technical school is a general term used for two-year college which provide mostly employment-preparation skills for trained labor, such as welding, culinary arts and office management.-Associations supporting technical schools:...

s. More than nine-tenths of the population is literate
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...

, and roughly the same proportion
Ratio
In mathematics, a ratio is a relationship between two numbers of the same kind , usually expressed as "a to b" or a:b, sometimes expressed arithmetically as a dimensionless quotient of the two which explicitly indicates how many times the first number contains the second In mathematics, a ratio is...

 of those age 7 to 14 are enrolled in school. Among the many institutions of higher, the largest and most esteemed is the state-supported University of São Paulo
University of São Paulo
Universidade de São Paulo is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian university and one of the country's most prestigious...

 (USP), established in 1934, which incorporated the historic College of Law (Faculdade de Direito) in the old São Francisco Square. USP, as it is generally known, enrolls a very high proportion of Brazil's doctoral
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...

 students and has spawned a wide variety of research institute
Research institute
A research institute is an establishment endowed for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research...

s and policy centre. Affiliated institutions include the Butantan Institute, a world-famous centre for research on snakes and the production of toxins and antitoxins.

The Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo was established in 1946 and has earned an enviable reputation among the continent's private institutions of higher learning. Also of note among Greater São Paulo's many other public and private colleges and universities is the School of Business Administration of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation
Fundação Getúlio Vargas
Fundação Getulio Vargas is a Brazilian higher education institution founded on December 20, 1944. It offers regular courses of Economics, Business Administration, Law, Social Sciences and Information technology management...

.

Health care

São Paulo is the largest health care hub in Latin America. Among its best hospitals are the Albert Einstein Israelites Hospital, ranked as the best in Latin America and the Hospital das Clínicas
Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade de São Paulo
The Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo is a complex of health institutions, located in various regions of the city of São Paulo, Brazil...

, the largest in the region. In the city In terms of public health
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...

 facilities, the city is home to institutions from all the three levels of government, federal, state and municipal. The private health care sector is also very large, and most of the best hospitals in Brazil are located in the city. As of September 2009, the city of São Paulo had:
  • 32,553 ambulatory
    Ambulatory
    The ambulatory is the covered passage around a cloister. The term is sometimes applied to the procession way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar....

     clinics, centers and professional offices (physicians, dentists and others);
  • 217 hospitals, with 32,554 beds;
  • 137,745 health care professionals, including 28,316 physicians.


Municipal health

Public health facilities in charge of the municipal government are spread all over the city's territory, with a grand total of 770 basic health care units (UBS), ambulatory and emergency clinics, and 17 hospitals. The Municipal Secretary of Health has 59,000 employees, among them more than 8,000 physicians and 12,000 nurses.

A population estimated in more than 6,000,000 citizens uses these facilities, which provide drugs at no cost, and manages an extensive family health program (PSF – Programa de Saúde da Família).

The Rede São Paulo Saudável
Rede São Paulo Saudável
thumb|right|400px|Screenshot of the initial page of Rede São Paulo Saudável e-learning websiteThe Rede São Paulo Saudável is a satellite-based digital TV corporate channel, developed by the Municipal Health Secretary of São Paulo, with the goal of bringing programs focused on health promotion and...

 (Healthy São Paulo Network) is a satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

-based digital TV
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...

 corporate channel
Corporate video
Corporate video production refers to audio-visual corporate communications material commissioned primarily for a use by a company, corporation or organisation. A corporate video is often intended for a specific purpose in a corporate or B2B environment and viewed only by a limited or targeted...

, developed by the Municipal Health Secretary of São Paulo, with the goal of bringing programs focused on health promotion
Health promotion
Health promotion has been defined by the World Health Organization's 2005 Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion in a Globalized World as "the process of enabling people to increase control over their health and its determinants, and thereby improve their health"...

 and health education
Health education
Health education is the profession of educating people about health. Areas within this profession encompass environmental health, physical health, social health, emotional health, intellectual health, and spiritual health...

, which may be watched by citizens seeking health care in its units in the city.

The network consists of two complete TV studios, and a system for transmission of closed digital video
Digital video
Digital video is a type of digital recording system that works by using a digital rather than an analog video signal.The terms camera, video camera, and camcorder are used interchangeably in this article.- History :...

 in high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...

 via satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

, with about 1,400 points of reception in all health care units of the municipality of São Paulo.

Music

Adoniran Barbosa
Adoniran Barbosa
Adoniran Barbosa, artistic name of João Rubinato , was a famous Brazilian traditional samba singer and composer.-Early years:...

 was a famous samba
Samba
Samba is a Brazilian dance and musical genre originating in Bahia and with its roots in Brazil and Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions. It is recognized around the world as a symbol of Brazil and the Brazilian Carnival...

 singer and composer who became successful during São Paulo's radio era. Born in 1912 in the town of Valinhos, Barbosa was known as the composer to the masses, particularly the Italian immigrants living in the quarters of Bela Vista, also known as "Bexiga" and Brás, as well as those who lived in the city's many cortiços or tenements. The topics of his songs are drawn from the life of urban workers, the unemployed and those who live on the edge. His first big hit was "Saudosa Maloca" ("Shanty of Fond Memories" – 1951), wherein three homeless friends recall with nostalgia their improvised shanty home, which was torn down by the landowner to make room for a building. In his Trem das Onze
Trem das Onze
"Trem das Onze" is a famous classical samba composition by Brazilian singer Adoniran Barbosa , released in 1964 and made famous that same year by the samba group Demônios da Garoa...

 ("The 11 pm Train") 1964 record, which has been ranked one of the five best samba songs ever, the protagonist explains to his lover that he cannot stay any longer because he has to catch the last train to the Jaçanã suburb, for his mother will not sleep before he arrives. An old-school samba band called Demônios da Garoa still plays his songs in the traditional Bar Brahma venue on São João Avenue downtown. Another important musician with a similar style is Paulo Vanzoline. Vanzoline is a PhD in Biology and a part-time professional musician. He composed a song depicting a love murder scene in São Paulo called "Ronda".

In the late 1960s, a psychedelic rock band called Os Mutantes
Os Mutantes
Os Mutantes ) are an influential Brazilian psychedelic rock band that were linked with the Tropicália movement of the late 1960s. It was formed by two brothers and a vocalist, but has gone through numerous personnel changes throughout its existence...

 led the way in the national avant garde music
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...

 scene. Their success is sometimes related to that of other tropicalia
Tropicalismo
Tropicália, also known as Tropicalismo, is a Brazilian art movement that arose in the late 1960s and encompassed theatre, poetry, and music, among other forms. Tropicália was influenced by poesia concreta , a genre of Brazilian avant-garde poetry embodied in the works of Augusto de Campos, Haroldo...

 musicians, but they also had a musical style
Music genre
A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music...

 and ideas of their own. They were regarded as very paulistanos in their behaviour and clothing. Os Mutantes released five albums together before lead singer Rita Lee
Rita Lee
Rita Lee Jones Carvalho , simply known as Rita Lee, is a Brazilian rock singer and composer. Lee continues to be a popular figure in Brazilian entertainment, where she is also known for being an animal rights activist and a vegetarian...

 departed in 1972 to form another group called Tutti-Frutti. Although almost exclusively known in Brazil at that time, Os Mutantes became quite successful abroad after the 1990s (a legend has it that a Brazilian young woman in an exchange programme in California forgot a Mutantes' vinyl record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 at her host home, and that helped make the band popular in that U.S. state). In 2000, Tecnicolor
Tecnicolor
Tecnicolor would have been the fourth album by the Brazilian band Os Mutantes. The album was intended to be their introduction in the English-speaking world and included English versions of songs from the albums Os Mutantes and A Divina Comédia ou Ando Meio Desligado, re-recordings in Portuguese...

, an album recorded in the early 1970s in English by the band, was released with artwork designed by Sean Lennon
Sean Lennon
is an American singer, songwriter, musician, guitarist and actor. He is the only child of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. His godfather is Sir Elton John.-Early life and education:...

.
After the two oil price shocks in the 1970s, the country suffered from an economic recession
Recession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...

 during the 1980s, a phenomenon that was named the lost decade. The very repressive military government of the day did not help in any way the social situation. At the end of the military rule in the early 1980s, a band called Ultrage a Rigor (Elegant Intruder) emerged in the city. They played a simple and irreverent style of rock. The lyrics depicted the changes in society and culture that not only São Paulo but Brazilian society as a whole were experiencing at the time. A late punk and garage scene became strong in the 1980s, perhaps associated with the gloomy scenario of unemployment and few actual perspectives from the viewpoint of the youth. All of thriving musicians and artists waiting for their moment to come. Examples of bands originating from this movement include Ira!
Ira!
Ira! was a Brazilian rock band that was founded in São Paulo in the early 1980s...

, Titãs
Titãs
Titãs are a rock band from São Paulo, Brazil. Their best-known line up is the one in the album Cabeça Dinossauro : Nando Reis , Branco Mello , Marcelo Fromer , Arnaldo Antunes , Tony Bellotto , Paulo Miklos , Charles Gavin and Sérgio Britto...

, Ratos de Porão
Ratos de Porão
Ratos de Porão is a Brazilian hardcore punk band from São Paulo. They were formed in 1980, toured South America, North America, and Europe and still continue to play today...

 and Inocentes. In the 1990s, drum & bass
Drum and bass
Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...

 became another musical movement in São Paulo, with artists such as DJ Marky
DJ Marky
Marco Antonio Silva a.k.a. DJ Marky is a Brazilian drum and bass DJ.Together with DJ Patife, XRS Land and Drumagick, Brazilians were forging a new sound in drum and bass that became popular around the world with releases such as LK and Só Tinha Que Ser Com Você.-Career:He was brought to the...

, DJ Patife
DJ Patife
Wagner Borges Ribeiro de Souza , better known by his stage name DJ Patife, is a prominent Brazilian drum and bass DJ....

, XRS, Drumagick
Drumagick
Drumagick are the brothers JrDeep and Guilherme Lopes . They are DJs and drum 'n' bass producers who live in São Paulo, Brazil.-History:...

, and Fernanda Porto
Fernanda Porto
Fernanda Porto, or Maria Fernanda Dutra Clemente , is a Brazilian singer of Drum 'n' Bossa, a genre that is the combination of electronic music and bossa nova in allusion to the Drum 'n' Bass genre....

. Many heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 bands also originated in São Paulo, such as Angra
Angra (band)
Angra is a Brazilian metal band from São Paulo, Brazil known for its symphonic interludes, highly technical instrumental playing and Brazilian regional elements.- Biography :...

, Torture Squad
Torture Squad
Torture Squad is a Brazilian death/thrash metal band, founded in 1990 which has released six studio albums and one live album. The band released their newest album, Aequilibrium, in 2010.-History:...

, Korzus and Dr. Sin
Dr. Sin
Dr. Sin is a rock band, formed in São Paulo, Brazil in 1991 by Eduardo Ardanuy and brothers Andria and Ivan Busic.-Biography:In the mid 1980s, brothers Ivan and Andria Busic played in several metal and hard rock bands together...

. Many "alternative" cultures of São Paulo mingle at a small shopping mall dubbed Galeria do Rock (English: "Rock Gallery")on 24 de Maio Street, which includes shops which cater to a broad range of alternative niches. Famous alternative band Cansei de Ser Sexy, or CSS (Portuguese for "tired of being sexy") also came from São Paulo.

Classical music is also refined and renowned in the city. Many of the most important classical Brazilian composers who are still alive, like Amaral Vieira, Osvaldo Lacerda
Osvaldo Lacerda
Osvaldo Lacerda ) is a Brazilian composer. He began piano study at nine, and in 1963, he became the first Brazilian composer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship.-References:...

 and Edson Zampronha
Edson Zampronha
Edson Zampronha is a Brazilian composer from an Italian family. His contemporary classical music has achieved a wide range audience due to its highly expressive musical discourse; due to an invention of a sophisticated musical rhetoric that operates on musical meanings, and due to a harmonic...

, were born in and live in São Paulo. Local baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...

 Paulo Szot
Paulo Szot
Paulo Szot is a Brazilian opera baritone singer and actor. In 2008, he made his Broadway debut as Emile De Becque in a revival of South Pacific. He won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance in the musical, becoming the first Brazilian to receive...

 has won international acclaim and a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

 nomination for his performance in a 2008 revival of South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...

. The São Paulo State Symphony is one of the outstanding orchestras in the world.

Music and Concert Halls

São Paulo's most important opera houses are: Sao Paulo Municipal Theater
Theatro Municipal (São Paulo)
Municipal Theatre of São Paulo is a theatre in São Paulo, Brazil. It is regarded as one of the landmarks of the city, significant both for its architectural value as well as for its historical importance, having been the venue for the Week of Modern Art in 1922, which revolutionised the arts in...

, Theatro São Pedro and Sala São Paulo, the latter being the headquarters of OSESP. The city also counts with several music halls. The main ones are: Credicard Hall, HSBC Music Hall, Olympia, Via Funchal, Villa Country, Carioca Club, Kezebre Rock Bar, Arena Anhembi and Espaco das Américas. Lots of bars and cultural centers also have stages for live performances, the soccer stadiums and the Sambadrome
Sambadrome
The Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí or simply Sambadrome, is a purpose-built parade area in downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where samba schools parade competitively each year during the Rio Carnival...

 host musical presentations as well.
At this time, the authoritys are preparing the coming next of many new very important halls, like the new Praça das Artes, with the Municipal Conservatory of Music Chamber Hall, and others veneus, like, Cultura Artistica, Teatro Sérgio Cardoso with a venue for only dance performances, and the gorgeous Herzog&DeMeron's Centro Cultural Luz, for Ballet, Opera, theater, and concerts, with three huge halls, thera are also the auditorium of the Latin-American Cultural Center, for concerts, The Mozarteum, held many concerts throw all over the year,this list it's not exhausting, because, almost every month, new places come out.

Literature

São Paulo was home to the first Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

 missionaries in Brazil, in the early 16th century. They wrote reports to the Portuguese crown about the newly found land, the native peoples
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

 and composed pieces of poetry and music for the catechism
Catechism
A catechism , i.e. to indoctrinate) is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching from New Testament times to the present...

. Among them were priests such as Manuel da Nóbrega
Manuel da Nóbrega
Manuel da Nóbrega was a Portuguese Jesuit priest and first Provincial of the Society of Jesus in colonial Brazil...

 and José de Anchieta
José de Anchieta
José de Anchieta was a Canarian Jesuit missionary to Brazil in the second half of the 16th century. A highly influential figure in Brazil's history in the 1st century after its discovery on April 22, 1500 by a Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral, Anchieta was one of the founders of...

, living in or near the colony then called Piratininga. They also helped to register the Old Tupi language
Old Tupi language
Old Tupi or Classical Tupi is an extinct Tupian language which was spoken by the native Tupi people of Brazil, mostly those who lived close to the sea. It belongs to the Tupi–Guarani language family, and which has a written history spanning the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries...

, lexicon and its grammar.

In 1922, the Brazilian Modernist Movement, launched in São Paulo, also began to achieve a similar cultural independence through different means. Brazil had gone through the same stages of development as the rest of Latin America, but its political and cultural independence
Independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....

 came more gradually. The first emperor of Brazil, Pedro I, was a legitimate member of the royal Portuguese dynasty. Although he declared Brazil's independence from Portugal in 1822, the country remained under imperial rule and the dominance of the court in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

 until 1889.
With Brazil thus tied to Portuguese culture
Culture of Portugal
The culture of Portugal is the result of a complex flow of different civilizations during the past Millennia. From prehistoric cultures, to its Pre-Roman civilizations , passing through its contacts with the Phoenician-Carthaginian world, the Roman period , the...

, Brazilian writers only little by little assumed responsibility for giving expression to their own landscape and ethnic mix
Multiracial
The terms multiracial and mixed-race describe people whose ancestries come from multiple races. Unlike the term biracial, which often is only used to refer to having parents or grandparents of two different races, the term multiracial may encompass biracial people but can also include people with...

 of peoples. The presence of large numbers of former slaves added a distinctive African
African people
African people refers to natives, inhabitants, or citizen of Africa and to people of African descent.-Etymology:Many etymological hypotheses that have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":...

 character to the culture
Culture of Brazil
The culture of Brazil presents a very diverse nature reflecting an ethnic and cultural mixing occurred in the colonial period involving mostly Native Americans, Portuguese and Africans...

. And subsequent infusions of immigrants of non-Portuguese origin, from different parts of Europe, helped the new nation to find its own voice and to use it. Mário de Andrade
Mário de Andrade
Mário Raul de Morais Andrade was a Brazilian poet, novelist, musicologist, art historian and critic, and photographer. One of the founders of Brazilian modernism, he virtually created modern Brazilian poetry with the publication of his Paulicéia Desvairada in 1922...

 and Oswald de Andrade
Oswald de Andrade
José Oswald de Andrade Souza was a Brazilian poet and polemicist. He was born and spent most of his life in São Paulo....

 are the prototypical modernists. With the urban poems of "Paulicéia Desvairada" and "Carefree Paulistan land" (1922), Mário de Andrade established the movement
Cultural movement
A cultural movement is a change in the way a number of different disciplines approach their work. This embodies all art forms, the sciences, and philosophies. Historically, different nations or regions of the world have gone through their own independent sequence of movements in culture, but as...

 in Brazil. His rhapsodic novel Macunaíma (1928), with its abundance of Brazilian folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...

, represents the apex of modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...

's nationalist prose through its creation of an offbeat native national hero
Hero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...

. Oswald de Andrade
Oswald de Andrade
José Oswald de Andrade Souza was a Brazilian poet and polemicist. He was born and spent most of his life in São Paulo....

's experimental poetry, avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 prose, particularly the novel Serafim Ponte Grande (1933), and provocative manifestos exemplify the movement's break with tradition. Modernist artists and writers chose the Municipal Theatre of São Paulo to launch their Modernist manifesto. The site happened to be a bastion of European culture with Opera and classical music presentations brought from Germany, France, Austria, and Italy. It was significant for them to choose such house as their starting point because the high society which frequented it denied its Brazilian roots by speaking languages such as French only in the opera house. Moreover, it behaved as if the rest of Brazil, and Brazilian culture itself, did not matter or did not exist. Both these authors were influential writers from the Modernist school: Mário de Andrade
Mário de Andrade
Mário Raul de Morais Andrade was a Brazilian poet, novelist, musicologist, art historian and critic, and photographer. One of the founders of Brazilian modernism, he virtually created modern Brazilian poetry with the publication of his Paulicéia Desvairada in 1922...


and Oswald de Andrade
Oswald de Andrade
José Oswald de Andrade Souza was a Brazilian poet and polemicist. He was born and spent most of his life in São Paulo....

.

Theaters

Many historians believe that the first theatre performance in Brazil was held in São Paulo. The Spanish Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

 missionary José de Anchieta
José de Anchieta
José de Anchieta was a Canarian Jesuit missionary to Brazil in the second half of the 16th century. A highly influential figure in Brazil's history in the 1st century after its discovery on April 22, 1500 by a Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral, Anchieta was one of the founders of...

 (1534–1597) wrote short plays that were performed and watched by the Tupi–Guarani natives. After that, however, São Paulo became a province and cultural activities wasn't the most important. It was only during the 19th's century, second half, that a cultural, musical and theatrical life, begins in the city, at the same time starts a very fast growing development,in almost all aspects of urban life, thanks to the coffee cycle
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

 and the wealth it brought, major European ethnic groups started making presentations in some of the state's countryside cities. The most important period for the art in São Paulo took place during, the 40's, it was the avant-garde time. It was in São Paulo a professional company, Teatro Brasileiro de Comédia, or TBC (Brazilian Theater of Comedy), but many others come with. During the 60s, major theater productions in São Paulo and Brazil were presented by two groups. Teatro de Arena began with a group of students from Escola de Arte Dramática (Drama Art School
Art school
Art school is a general term for any educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. The term applies to institutions with elementary, secondary, post-secondary or undergraduate, or graduate or...

), founded by Alfredo Mesquita, in 1948. In 1958, the group excelled with the play "Eles não usam black tie," a masterpiece by Gianfrancesco Guarnieri
Gianfrancesco Guarnieri
Gianfrancesco Sigfrido Benedetto Marinenghi de Guarnieri was a Brazilian actor and playwright.- External links :...

 that, for the first time in the history of the Brazilian drama, had labor
Wage labour
Wage labour is the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer, where the worker sells their labour under a formal or informal employment contract. These transactions usually occur in a labour market where wages are market determined...

 workers
Laborer
A Laborer or labourer - see variation in english spelling - is one of the construction trades, traditionally considered unskilled manual labor, as opposed to skilled labor. In the division of labor, laborers have all blasting, hand tools, power tools, air tools, and small heavy equipment, and act...

 as protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...

s.

After the military coup of 1964, which was supported by the US, theater plays started focusing on the Brazilian history
History of Brazil
The history of Brazil begins with the arrival of the first indigenous peoples, thousands of years ago by crossing the Bering land bridge into Alaska and then moving south....

 (Zumbi, Tiradentes). Teatro de Arena was an embattled stage for the democratic resistance during the military dictatorship
Military dictatorship
A military dictatorship is a form of government where in the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military....

 period, marked by its censorship. Teatro Oficina also played an important role. It was there that the Tropicalist movement began. There was a number of plays that represented historic
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

 moments, among which "O Rei da Vela", "Galileu Galilei" (1968), "Na Sela das Cidades" (1969) and "Gracias Señor" (1972). Today, all kinds of plays are performed at São Paulo's hundreds of theatres and halls, going from classical music, ballet to avant-garde plays and Broadway musicals.

Museums

  • Museu Paulista

Also popularly known as "Ipiranga Museum", the first monument especially built to preserve the memory of the Independence of Brazil
Brazilian Declaration of Independence
The Brazilian Independence comprised a series of political events occurred in 1821–1823, most of which involved disputes between Brazil and Portugal regarding the call for independence presented by the Brazilian Kingdom...

, opened on September 7, 1895, with the name of Museu de Ciências Naturais (Natural Science Museum
Science museum
A science museum or a science centre is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in museology have broadened the range of...

). In 1919, it became once again a historic
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

 museum. Having the architectural influence of the Versailles Palace in France, the Ipiranga's collection, with approximately 100,000 pieces, comprises works of art, furniture, clothing, and appliances that once belonged to famous people
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...

 who took part in Brazilian history
History of Brazil
The history of Brazil begins with the arrival of the first indigenous peoples, thousands of years ago by crossing the Bering land bridge into Alaska and then moving south....

, such as explorers, rulers, and freedom fighters. Its facilities are also home to a library with 100,000 books and the "Centro de Documentação Histórica," Historic Documentation Center, with 40,000 manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

s.
  • Memorial da América Latina

Stretching over 78,000 square meters, Memorial da América Latina (Latin America's Memorial) was conceived to be a place for the integration of Latin American countries
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

 and their roots and cultures. Memorial is home to the headquarters of Parlamento Latino-Americano – Parlatino (Latin American Parliament). Designed by the architect Oscar Niemeyer, Memorial has an exhibition pavilion, where there is a permanent exhibition of the continent's craftwork production; a library with books, newspapers, magazines, videos, films and records about the history of Latin America; and an auditorium with capacity for 1,679 people.
  • Museu da Imigração e Memorial do Imigrante

Hospedaria do Imigrante (Immigrant's Hostel) was built in 1886 and opened in 1887, when the first immigrants were housed there. The Immigrant's Hostel was built in Brás to welcome the immigrants who arrived in Brazil through the Port of Santos
Port of Santos
The Port of Santos is located in the city of Santos, Brazil. As of 2006, it is the busiest container port in Latin America. It possesses a wide variety of cargo handling terminals - solid and liquid bulk, containers and general loads. It is Brazil's leading port in container traffic...

, quarantining those who were sick and helping new arrivals to find work in coffee plantations in Western, Northern, and Southwestern São Paulo State and Northern Paraná State. From 1882 to 1978, 2.5 million immigrants of more than 60 nationalities and ethnicities were guests there, all of them duly registered in the museum's books and lists. The hostel used to serve approximately 3,000 people on average, but under special circumstances, this number reached 8,000. The hostel received the last immigrants in 1978.

In 1998 the Hostel became a museum, and it preserves the documentation, memory and objects of the immigrants that came to Brazil in search of hope and wealth. Located in one of the few centenarian buildings left in the city of São Paulo, the museum occupies part of the former Hostel. Aside from bringing the immigrants' history to the public, the museum also restores wooden train wagons from the former São Paulo Railway
São Paulo Railway
São Paulo Railway was a privately owned British railway company in Brazil, which operated the gauge railway from the seaport at Santos via São Paulo to Jundiaí...

. There are two restored wagons in the museum. One of them dates from 1914, and another one a second class passenger car, dates from 1931. The Memorial do Imigrante pays homage to the ancestors of millions of Brazilians who arrived through the port of Santos and had São Paulo as a gateway to Brazil. It is possible to find in the museum the names of all immigrants who were hosted there from 1888 to 1978.
  • Museu de Zoologia da USP

Occupying an area of 700 square meters, the animals shown in the museum are samples of the country's tropical fauna
Fauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...

 and were prepared (embalmed) more than 50 years ago. In the entrance hall, there is information about the main activities carried out by USP's staff and by the museum's researchers. The animals are grouped together according to their classification: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

s, and some invertebrates such as reefs, crustacean
Crustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...

s and mollusks. The library, specialized in zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...

, has modern facilities and equipment and serve both the scientific community
Scientific community
The scientific community consists of the total body of scientists, its relationships and interactions. It is normally divided into "sub-communities" each working on a particular field within science. Objectivity is expected to be achieved by the scientific method...

 and the public in general. It has 73,850 works, of which 8,473 are books and 2,364 are newspapers, in addition to theses and map
Map
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....

s.
  • Museu de Arte de São Paulo

The museum was founded by the journalist Assis Chateaubriand and directed by Pietro Maria Bardi
Pietro Maria Bardi
Pietro Maria Bardi was the curator of the São Paulo Museum of Art, Brazil. He was born Italian and stirred the Brazilian artistic community with his new ideas about popularizing museums by making both modern and classical art accessible to the masses...

. Its current headquarters, opened in 1968, were designed by the architect Lina Bo Bardi
Lina Bo Bardi
Lina Bo Bardi was a Brazilian modernist architect born in Italy....

. Two enormous colonnades support the 9,2 thousand ton building, forming a 74-meter free space, unique in the world. MASP has one of world's most important collections of European art
Western art history
Western art is the art of the North American and European countries, and art created in the forms accepted by those countries.Written histories of Western art often begin with the art of the Ancient Middle East, Ancient Egypt and the Ancient Aegean civilisations, dating from the 3rd millennium BC...

,the most important collections are about Italian and French painting schools, but there are including works of art by distinguished artists of others European schools, such as Degas
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...

, Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...

, Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...

 and Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard was a French painter and printmaker, as well as a founding member of Les Nabis.-Biography:...

, among others, The collection contains over 9,000 works of art's masterpieces of inestimable value,.
  • Acervo do Palácio dos Bandeirantes

The headquarters of the State Government has an important collection of works of art by Brazilian artists, such as Portinari
Cândido Portinari
Candido Portinari was one of the most important Brazilian painters and also a prominent and influential practitioner of the neo-realism style in painting....

, Aldo Bonadei, Djanira, Almeida Júnior
José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior
José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior was a Brazilian painter of the 19th century. He is widely regarded as the most important Brazilian realist painter of the 19th century, and a major inspiration for the modernist painters...

, Victor Brecheret
Victor Brecheret
Victor Brecheret was an Italian-Brazilian sculptor. He lived most of his life in São Paulo, except for his studies in Paris in his early twenties...

, Ernesto de Fiori and Aleijadinho
Aleijadinho
Aleijadinho was a Colonial Brazil-born sculptor and architect, noted for his works on and in various churches of Brazil....

. Additionally, it also gathers colonial furniture, leather and silver artefacts, and European tapestry. In eclectic style
Eclecticism in art
Eclecticism is a kind of mixed style in the fine arts: "the borrowing of a variety of styles from different sources and combining them" . Significantly, Eclecticism hardly ever constituted a specific style in art: it is characterized by the fact that it was not a particular style...

, its walls are covered with panels describing the history of São Paulo.
  • Museu da Imagem e do Som

Opened in May 1990, the main aim of Museu da Imagem e do Som
São Paulo Museum of Image and Sound
The São Paulo Museum of Image and Sound is a public museum of audio-visual works, established in 1970 and located in São Paulo, Brazil...

 (Image
Image
An image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person.-Characteristics:...

 and Sound Museum) is to keep and preserve manifestations in the music, cinema, photography, and graphical
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...

 arts areas, as well as any other manifestation related to the Brazilian contemporary life. MIS has a collection of more than 200,000 images, distributed in thematic collections of diverse content. It has more than 1,600 fiction videotapes, documentaries and music, and 12,750 titles recorded in Super 8 and 16 mm. Additionally, MIS organizes concerts, cinema and video festivals, and photography and graphical arts exhibitions.

Tourism and recreation

São Paulo is a major cultural centre. The city has an ethnically diverse metropolitan area, with predominant Italian, Portuguese and African background. It also has a significant number of Spanish, Lebanese and Japanese descendents. São Paulo is known for its varied and sophisticated cuisine, ranging from Chinese
Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine is any of several styles originating in the regions of China, some of which have become highly popular in other parts of the world – from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa...

 to French
French cuisine
French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...

, from fast food chains to five star
Star (classification)
Stars are often used as symbols for classification purposes. They are used by reviewers for ranking things such as movies, TV shows, restaurants, and hotels. For example, one to five stars is commonly employed to categorize hotels.-Restaurant ratings:...

 restaurants. There are approximately 62 different types of cuisines in São Paulo, and more than 12,000 restaurants. Other venues such as bars, pubs, lounges and discos cater to a variety of music tastes.

São Paulo is home to the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), dedicated by Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

 in the first half of the 20th century and "Pinacoteca do Estado
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo
The Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo is one of the most important art museums in Brazil. It is housed in a 1900 building in Jardim da Luz, Downtown São Paulo, projected by Ramos de Azevedo and Domiziano Rossi to be the headquarters of the Lyceum of Arts and Crafts...

" art museums, a symphonic orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

 (São Paulo State Symphony (OSESP – based in the Sala São Paulo
Sala São Paulo
The Julio Prestes Cultural Center, which is located in the Julio Prestes Train Station in the old north central section of the city of São Paulo, Brazil, was inaugurated on July 9, 1999. The building has been totally restored and renovated by the São Paulo State Government, as part of the downtown...

 theatre in the gorgeous Julio Prestes
Júlio Prestes
Júlio Prestes de Albuquerque was a Brazilian politician. Governor of São Paulo state in 1926, he was elected president of Brazil on March 1, 1930, but never took office because the government was overthrown in the Revolution of 1930 that brought Getulio Vargas to power, three weeks before Prestes'...

 train station)), and a Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...

 Grand Prix
Grand Prix motor racing
Grand Prix motor racing has its roots in organised automobile racing that began in France as far back as 1894. It quickly evolved from a simple road race from one town to the next, to endurance tests for car and driver...

 racing circuit
Race track
A race track is a purpose-built facility for racing of animals , automobiles, motorcycles or athletes. A race track may also feature grandstands or concourses. Some motorsport tracks are called speedways.A racetrack is a permanent facility or building...

 (Interlagos
Autódromo José Carlos Pace
Autódromo José Carlos Pace, also known by its former name Interlagos, is a motor racing circuit located in the city of São Paulo, and named after Carlos Pace, a Brazilian Formula One driver, who had died prior to its naming...

).

Landmarks

  • Paulista Avenue (one of the most important thoroughfares of the city and the site of many cultural centers and museums, such as the MASP and Centro Cultural Itaú).

  • Brooklin (a financial and residential district).

  • Banespa Building
    Altino Arantes Building
    The Altino Arantes Building also known as the Banespa Building, is an important skyscraper located in São Paulo, Brazil.-History:The building was constructed to be the headquarters of the Bank of the State of São Paulo , between 1939 and 1947. It remained the tallest building of the city for two...

     (skyscraper with observation deck
    Deck (building)
    In architecture, a deck is a flat surface capable of supporting weight, similar to a floor, but typically constructed outdoors, often elevated from the ground, and usually connected to a building...

     and museum designed after the Empire State building).

  • Catedral da Sé (the metropolitan cathedral, a symbol of the city).

  • Edifício Copan
    Edifício Copan
    The Edifício Copan is a 140-metre, 38-story residential building in São Paulo, Brazil. Construction began in 1957 and, following some interruptions, was completed in 1966...

    , designed by Oscar Niemeyer
    Oscar Niemeyer
    Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho is a Brazilian architect specializing in international modern architecture...

    , in the Centro neighbourhood. Built between 1951 and 1966, its wavy shape gives the building an impression of movement, and the integration of small businesses and residential flats are of innovative urbanism
    Urbanism
    Broadly, urbanism is a focus on cities and urban areas, their geography, economies, politics, social characteristics, as well as the effects on, and caused by, the built environment.-Philosophy:...

    .

  • Edifício Itália
    Edifício Itália
    Edifício Itália is a 168 metre tall 46 story skyscraper in São Paulo, Brazil, built from 1956 to 1965. It hosts the Circolo Italiano foundation and Terraço Italia restaurant in its 44th floor. It also has a rooftop observation deck, open for tourists.Edifício Itália was designed by...

     (skyscraper with observation deck).

  • Estação da Luz
    Luz Station
    The Luz Station is the common name for a train station in the Luz neighbourhood in São Paulo, Brazil. The station is part of the metropolitan rail system ran by the CPTM. The station is mostly notable for housing the Museum of the Portuguese Language, established in 2006...

     (historical railway station built 1895–1901).

  • Mooca
    Mooca
    Mooca from tupi mo-oka, meaning to build houses, is a district in the subprefecture of the same name in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Mooca today is about to reach the mark of 65,000 inhabitants, spread in . It is also considered one of the fastest growing districts in the city, experiencing over...

     (Italian district of São Paulo).

  • Liberdade
    Liberdade
    Liberdade is the name of a district in the subprefecture of Sé, in São Paulo, Brazil. It is home to the largest Japanese community outside of Japan in the world and has been growing since the 1950s....

     (Asian district of São Paulo).

  • Mercado Municipal (historical market place
    Marketplace
    A marketplace is the space, actual, virtual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie. the 'real world' in which products and services are provided and consumed.-Marketplaces and street markets:A...

     in São Paulo).

  • Municipal Theatre of São Paulo
    Theatro Municipal (São Paulo)
    Municipal Theatre of São Paulo is a theatre in São Paulo, Brazil. It is regarded as one of the landmarks of the city, significant both for its architectural value as well as for its historical importance, having been the venue for the Week of Modern Art in 1922, which revolutionised the arts in...

     (magnificent opera house
    Opera house
    An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...

     built in the early 20th century.)

  • Museu de Arte Sacra (museum of religious art
    Sacred art
    Sacred art is imagery intended to uplift the mind to the spiritual. Sacred art involves the ritual and cultic practices and practical and operative aspects of the path of the spiritual realization within the bosom of the tradition in question....

     located in a colonial
    Colonial Brazil
    In the history of Brazil, Colonial Brazil, officially the Viceroyalty of Brazil comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to kingdom alongside Portugal as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.During the over 300 years...

     convent).

  • Museu do Ipiranga
    Museu Paulista
    The Museu Paulista of the University of São Paulo is a Brazilian history museum located near where Emperor D. Pedro I proclaimed the Brazilian independence on the banks of Ipiranga brook in the Southeast region of the city of São Paulo, then the "Caminho do Mar," or road to the seashore...

     (museum built where the Independence of Brazil
    Brazilian Declaration of Independence
    The Brazilian Independence comprised a series of political events occurred in 1821–1823, most of which involved disputes between Brazil and Portugal regarding the call for independence presented by the Brazilian Kingdom...

     was proclaimed in 1822).

  • Museum of the Portuguese Language
    Museum of the Portuguese Language
    The Museum of the Portuguese Language is an interactive Portuguese language — and Linguistics/Language Development in general — museum in São Paulo, Brazil. It is housed in the Estação da Luz train station, in the urban district of the same name...

     (located inside Estação da Luz
    Luz Station
    The Luz Station is the common name for a train station in the Luz neighbourhood in São Paulo, Brazil. The station is part of the metropolitan rail system ran by the CPTM. The station is mostly notable for housing the Museum of the Portuguese Language, established in 2006...

    ).

  • Pátio do Colégio (founding site of the city, former Jesuit
    Society of Jesus
    The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

     mission-school to convert the natives to Catholicism).

  • Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo
    Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo
    The Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo is one of the most important art museums in Brazil. It is housed in a 1900 building in Jardim da Luz, Downtown São Paulo, projected by Ramos de Azevedo and Domiziano Rossi to be the headquarters of the Lyceum of Arts and Crafts...

     (important museum of Brazilian art).

  • Praça da Sé
    Praça da Sé
    The Praça da Sé is a public space in São Paulo, considered the center of town, because is the point from where the distancy of all roads that pass on São Paulo are counted. The square was the location of many historic events in São Paulo's history, most notably during the Diretas Já movement...

     (large square next to the São Paulo Cathedral. Official centre of the city).

Parks

There are several parks in the city of São Paulo:
  • Parque da Aclimação - Located in the Aclimação neighbourhood in the central region, it was inaugurated in 1939 and has an area of approximatelly 112000 m² (133,951 sq yd).

  • Parque da Água Branca - Located at the west side of the city, in the Barra Funda district. It was inaugurated in 1929 and has an area of approximately 136000 m² (162,655 sq yd).

  • Parque Alfredo Volpi - With an area of 142000 m² (169,831 sq yd), it's located at the south side of the city, in the Cidade Jardim neighbourhood.

  • Parque Anália Franco - Located in the Jardim Anália Franco neighbourhood, has an area of 286000 m² (342,053 sq yd).

  • Parque Anhanguera - This park features native Atlantic Forest and is environmentally protected by law. Because of that, most of its area has restricted access. It was inaugurated in 1979 and has an area of approximately 9000000 m² (10,763,910 sq yd). Located in the Perus neighbourhood, it's situated close to the Jaraguá peak, in the city's far northwest.

  • Parque Buenos Aires - Located in the Higienópolis neighbourhood, in the city's central area. It was inaugurated in 1913 and has an area of 22200 m² (26,551 sq yd).

  • Parque Burle Marx - Inaugurated in 1995, it's located in the Panamby neighbourhood, in the city's south side.

  • Parque da Cantareira - Inaugurated in 1963, it's an environmental protection unit and was listed by UNESCO in 1994. With an area of approximately 7,916.52 hectares, it covers part of the Cantareira mountains, which is part of the Atlantic Forest. Includes areas of the north side of São Paulo and parts of the cities of Mairiporã, Guarulhos and Caieiras.

  • Parque do Carmo - Inaugurated in 1976, it's the biggest public park inside the city, with an area of approximately 500000 m² (597,995 sq yd). Situated at the city's east side, in the Itaquera neighbourhood.

  • Parque Cidade de Toronto - Located in the district of Santo Domingo, north-west of the city.

  • Parque dos Eucaliptos - Located in western Sao Paulo in the district of Vila Sonia.

  • Parque Estadual Fontes do Ipiranga - Also known as Parque do Estado (State Park), it was created in 1991 and extends over 526 hectares. Contains remnants of the Atlantic Forest vegetation.

  • Parque Ecológico do Guarapiranga - Situated on the banks of the Guarapiranga reservoir on the south side of the city.

  • Parque Guarapiranga - Located on the banks of Guarapiranga Dam, in the district of Campo Limpo (south side of São Paulo).

  • Horto Florestal de São Paulo - Located in the northern side of São Paulo, at about seven miles from the center of the city, it occupies an area of ​​174 hectares at the foot of the Cantareira mountains. It's adjacent to the Cantareira State Park in the district of Mandaqui. It's access can be made ​​from the neighboring district of Tremembé, and its accecible perimeter is 47,875 meters.

  • Ibirapuera Park - The second largest park of the city and probably the most popular. It's home to several museums and is known for its buildings designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer
    Oscar Niemeyer
    Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho is a Brazilian architect specializing in international modern architecture...

    , such as the Oca and the new Ibirapuera Auditorium.

  • Parque Estadual do Jaraguá - Created in 1961, around the Jaraguá peak.

  • Parque Jardim Felicidade - Located in the Pirituba district, north side of the city.

  • Parque Luís Carlos Prestes - A small park located in the extreme west of São Paulo, in the Jardim Rolinópolis neighbourhood, near the Raposo Tavares highway and close to another city park, the Parque da Previdência. Opened in 1990, it was named after the political, military and revolutionary Luis Carlos Prestes, and has an area of ​​27100 m² (32,411 sq yd).

  • Parque Nabuco - Located in the Jabaquara district, south side of the city.

  • Parque do Piqueri - Located in the Tatuapé neighbourhood, has an area of ​​97272 m² (116,336 sq yd).

  • Parque Previdência - Located in the far west of São Paulo in the neighborhood of Jardim Rolinópolis, near the Raposo Tavares highway. It has an area of ​​91500 m² (109,433 sq yd) and was founded in 1979.

  • Parque Lina e Paulo Raia - Located in the Jabaquara district, southern Sao Paulo, has an area of ​​15000 m² (17,940 sq yd).

  • Parque Raposo Tavares - Located on the western outskirts of the city, in the district of Butantan.

  • Parque Raul Seixas - It has 33000 m² (39,468 sq yd) and is situated in the district of Itaquera, in the East of the city.

  • Parque Rodrigo de Gásperi - Located in the Pirituba district, north side of the city.

  • Parque Santa Amélia - Located in the Itaim Paulista district, eastern suburb of São Paulo.

  • Parque Santo Dias - Located in the district of Capão Redondo, in the city's south side suburb.

  • Parque São Domingos - Located in the district of Santo Domingo, west of the city. It was named after the neighborhood, which honors the Catholic saint Dominic Savio.

  • Parque Severo Gomes - Located in the neighborhood of Granja Julieta, south of the city, was inaugurated in 1989.

  • Parque Ecológico do Tietê - With an area of 12.5 million m², inaugurated in 1982, it's an environmental protection region. Located in the floodplain of the Tietê River, between the cities of São Paulo, Guarulhos Itaquaquecetuba.

  • Parque Trianon - Inaugurateded in 1892 with the opening of Paulista Avenue, it was designed by French landscape architect Paul Villon. The name came from the fact that at that time, opposite the park, there was a club named Trianon. In 1924 it was donated to the city, and in 1931 received its current name in honor of one of the heroes of the Uprising Lieutenants, Antonio de Siqueira Campos.

  • Parque Vila dos Remédios - Located in the district of Jaguara, close to the confluence of the Pinheiros and Tietê rivers in the city's north side.

  • Parque Vila Guilherme - Opened in 1986, it's ocated in the district of Vila Guilherme, north side of the city.

  • Parque Ecológico da Vila Prudente - Located in the district of VilaPrudente, on the city's east side.

  • Parque Villa-Lobos - Opened in 1994, it's located in the Alto de Pinheiros district, on the banks of the Pinheiros River, and has an area of 732000 m² (875,465 sq yd).

Zoos

The Zoological Park of São Paulo is the largest in Brazil. Located in an area of ​​824529 m² (986,128 sq yd) of original Atlantic Forest, has approximatelly 4 miles of alleys. It houses the headwaters of the historic stream of Ipiranga, at south side of the city. Displays more than 3,200 animals, 102 species of mammals, 216 species of birds, 95 species of reptiles, 15 species of amphibians and 16 species of invertebrates, in enclosures that replicate the natural habitats of these animals. The Zoo's farm of 572 ha, produces vegetables used in the manufacture of feed for various animals, and material to the enclosures where the animals stay. There are animals that need extra area for mating.

The zoo also counts with a nursery for rejected puppies and incubators for hatching eggs of birds and reptiles. His library of more than four thousand volumes is open to the public. Its partnerships with other state, federal and foreign research institutions include researches that aim to facilitate the preservation of endangered species.

São Paulo also has a Safari Zoo located in its southeastern side, in the district of Cursino.

Aquarium

The Aquário de São Paulo (São Paulo Aquarium) it's one of the largest aquariums in Latin America, with an area of 9,000 square meters and 2 million liters of water. It has approximately 3,000 copies of about 300 species of animals, and it's located in the Ipiranga neighbourhood.

Football

As in the rest of Brazil, Association football is by far the most popular sport in the city. The major teams in São Paulo are known as "The Iron Trio" ("Trio de Ferro"): Corinthians
Sport Club Corinthians Paulista
Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, commonly just known as Corinthians , is a Brazilian football club based in the city of São Paulo. They play in the São Paulo state league, as well as the Brasileirão, Brazil's top national league...

, Palmeiras
Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras
Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras is a Brazilian football club from São Paulo. The club was founded on August 26, 1914, as Palestra Italia but changed to the current name on September 14, 1942...

 and São Paulo FC. There are three other small clubs in the city, Portuguesa
Associação Portuguesa de Desportos
Associação Portuguesa de Desportos, usually called Portuguesa or Lusa, is a sports club, and a Brazilian football team from São Paulo in São Paulo state, founded on August 14, 1920 by the Portuguese population of the city.-History:...

, Juventus
Clube Atlético Juventus
The Clube Atlético Juventus , usually known simply as Juventus, is a Brazilian football club based in Mooca, a São Paulo neighborhood...

 and Nacional.

São Paulo is one of the host cities of the 2014 FIFA World Cup
2014 FIFA World Cup
The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be the 20th FIFA World Cup, an international association football tournament that will take place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014....

, for which Brazil is the host nation. The opening of 2014 FIFA World Cup
2014 FIFA World Cup
The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be the 20th FIFA World Cup, an international association football tournament that will take place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014....

, is under negotiation to be held in the Corinthians
Sport Club Corinthians Paulista
Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, commonly just known as Corinthians , is a Brazilian football club based in the city of São Paulo. They play in the São Paulo state league, as well as the Brasileirão, Brazil's top national league...

 stadium, called Arena Itaquera, which is being built.
Football/soccer teams
Club League Venue Established
SC Corinthians
Sport Club Corinthians Paulista
Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, commonly just known as Corinthians , is a Brazilian football club based in the city of São Paulo. They play in the São Paulo state league, as well as the Brasileirão, Brazil's top national league...

Série A
Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
The Campeonato Brasileiro de Clubes da Série A , popularly known as the Brasileirão , is a professional football league at the top of the Brazilian football league system held annually since 1959. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates a system of promotion and relegation with the Série B...

Alfredo Schürig Stadium
16,000 (28,000 record)
1910
SE Palmeiras
Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras
Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras is a Brazilian football club from São Paulo. The club was founded on August 26, 1914, as Palestra Italia but changed to the current name on September 14, 1942...

Série A
Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
The Campeonato Brasileiro de Clubes da Série A , popularly known as the Brasileirão , is a professional football league at the top of the Brazilian football league system held annually since 1959. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates a system of promotion and relegation with the Série B...

Palestra Itália Stadium
29,173 (40,283 record)
1914
São Paulo FC
São Paulo Futebol Clube
São Paulo Futebol Clube , commonly known as São Paulo, is a professional football club based in São Paulo, Brazil. They play in the Campeonato Paulista, São Paulo's state league, and the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A or Brasileirão, Brazil's national league, and are one of the only five clubs to...

Série A
Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
The Campeonato Brasileiro de Clubes da Série A , popularly known as the Brasileirão , is a professional football league at the top of the Brazilian football league system held annually since 1959. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates a system of promotion and relegation with the Série B...

Morumbi Stadium
67,428 (138,032 record)
1935
Portuguesa
Associação Portuguesa de Desportos
Associação Portuguesa de Desportos, usually called Portuguesa or Lusa, is a sports club, and a Brazilian football team from São Paulo in São Paulo state, founded on August 14, 1920 by the Portuguese population of the city.-History:...

Série A
Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
The Campeonato Brasileiro de Clubes da Série A , popularly known as the Brasileirão , is a professional football league at the top of the Brazilian football league system held annually since 1959. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates a system of promotion and relegation with the Série B...

Canindé Stadium
Estádio do Canindé
The Estádio do Canindé, also known as Estádio Oswaldo Teixeira Duarte, is a football stadium inaugurated on January 11, 1956 in Canindé neighborhood, São Paulo, São Paulo state, with a maximum capacity of 21,004 spectators...


19,717 (25,000 record)
1920
Juventus
Clube Atlético Juventus
The Clube Atlético Juventus , usually known simply as Juventus, is a Brazilian football club based in Mooca, a São Paulo neighborhood...

Campeonato Paulista Série A3
Campeonato Paulista Série A3
Campeonato Paulista Série A3 is the third level of the São Paulo state professional football championship, one of the Brazilian state championships. This tournament is played by 20 teams, in which the four best teams are promoted to Série A2...

Rua Javari Stadium
Estádio Rua Javari
Estádio Conde Rodolfo Crespi, usually known as Estádio Rua Javari, is a multi-use stadium located in São Paulo's Mooca neighborhood, Brazil. It is used mostly for football matches and hosts the home games of Clube Atlético Juventus, which is also the stadium's owner, and hosted the games of Pão de...


2,730 (9,000 record)
1924
Nacional Campeonato Paulista Série A2
Campeonato Paulista Série A2
Campeonato Paulista Série A2 is the second level of the São Paulo state professional football championship, one of the Brazilian state championships. This tournament is played by 20 teams, in which the four best teams are promoted to Série A1 and the four worst teams are relegated to Série...

Nicolau Alayon Stadium
9,650 (22,000 record)
1919


São Silvestre Road Race

The São Silvestre Race takes place every New Year's Eve. It was first held in 1925, when the competitors ran about 8,000 metres across the streets. Since then, the distance raced varied, but is now set at 15 km (9.3 mi).

Brazilian Grand Prix

The Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...

 Brazilian Grand Prix
Brazilian Grand Prix
The Brazilian Grand Prix is a Formula One championship race which occurs at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Interlagos, a district in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.- History :...

  is held at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace
Autódromo José Carlos Pace
Autódromo José Carlos Pace, also known by its former name Interlagos, is a motor racing circuit located in the city of São Paulo, and named after Carlos Pace, a Brazilian Formula One driver, who had died prior to its naming...

 in Interlagos
Interlagos
***Interlagos is an upper class neighborhood located in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It includes the Autódromo José Carlos Pace race track, home of the Formula One Brazilian Grand Prix...

, a neighborhood of São Paulo. The race at Interlagos has been held continuously since 1990
1990 Brazilian Grand Prix
The 1990 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on March 25, 1990 at Interlagos. It was the 19th Brazilian Grand Prix and the ninth to be held at Interlagos. The São Paulo circuit had not held the Grand Prix since 1980 and the circuit was extensively renovated with the circuit itself...

. Since 1973
1973 Brazilian Grand Prix
The 1973 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Interlagos on February 11, 1973.- Classification :-Standings after the race:Drivers' Championship standingsConstructors' Championship standings...

, the first year Formula One Grand Prix had been held in Brazil, 4 Brazilians have won the Grand Prix in São Paulo: Emerson Fittipaldi
Emerson Fittipaldi
Emerson Fittipaldi |São Paulo]], Brazil) is a Brazilian automobile racing driver who throughout a long and successful career won the Indianapolis 500 twice and championships in both Formula One and CART.-Early and personal life:...

 (1973
1973 Brazilian Grand Prix
The 1973 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Interlagos on February 11, 1973.- Classification :-Standings after the race:Drivers' Championship standingsConstructors' Championship standings...

 and 1974
1974 Brazilian Grand Prix
The 1974 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Interlagos on January 27, 1974.- Race summary :Emerson Fittipaldi took pole position for his home race from Carlos Reutemann. The start of the race was delayed as the track had to be swept clear of broken glass from over-exuberant...

), José Carlos Pace (1975
1975 Brazilian Grand Prix
The 1975 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Interlagos on January 26, 1975. It was the fourth Brazilian Grand Prix since its introduction in 1972. The race was memorably won by São Paulo native Carlos Pace driving a Brabham BT44B. It would be the only win of Pace's...

), Ayrton Senna
Ayrton Senna
Ayrton Senna da Silva was a Brazilian racing driver. A three-time Formula One world champion, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time...

 (1991
1991 Brazilian Grand Prix
The 1991 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held at Interlagos on March 24, 1991.- Race summary :Ayrton Senna made a perfect start to lead from Nigel Mansell, Riccardo Patrese, Jean Alesi, Gerhard Berger and Alain Prost, building up a lead of some 3 seconds by lap 8. However Mansell was...

 and 1993
1993 Brazilian Grand Prix
The 1993 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Interlagos on March 28, 1993. It was the second round of the 1993 Formula One season....

) and Felipe Massa
Felipe Massa
Felipe Massa is a Brazilian Formula One racing driver. He finished second in the Drivers' World Championship, and is under contract to race for Scuderia Ferrari until the end of the season.-Early years:...

 (2006
2006 Brazilian Grand Prix
The 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on October 22, 2006 at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, São Paulo. It was the 18th and final race of the 2006 Formula One season...

 and 2008
2008 Brazilian Grand Prix
The 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on November 2, 2008, at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, Interlagos, in São Paulo, Brazil. It was the 18th and final race of the 2008 Formula One season. The race, contested over 71 laps, was won by Ferrari driver Felipe Massa...

).

In 2007
2007 Brazilian Grand Prix
The 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix was the seventeenth and last race of the 2007 Formula One season. It was held from 19 to October 21 at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in São Paulo. The Championship was decided in the race, which was won by Kimi Räikkönen...

, new local railway station Autódromo of the Line C (Line 9) of CPTM
Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos
Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos is a commuter rail company owned by the São Paulo State Secretariat for Metropolitan Transports. It was created in 1992 from several railroads that already existed in Greater São Paulo, Brazil....

, was constructed near the circuit to improve access.

São Paulo profits the most in the year during the F1 Brazilian Grand Prix due to boosts in tourism, commerce and nightlife.

São Paulo Indy 300

The 2010 São Paulo Indy 300
São Paulo Indy 300
The São Paulo Indy 300 is an event in the IRL IndyCar Series, which opened the 2010 IndyCar Series season.The event was announced on November 25, 2009, as the first championship event for the series outside of North America and Japan, and the first American open-wheel race in the country since the...

was the first race of the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season
2010 IndyCar Series season
The 2010 Izod IndyCar Series season was the 15th season of the IndyCar Series, and the 99th recognized season of top-level American open wheel racing. It was the series' first of six planned seasons under Izod title sponsorship, a multi-million dollar deal which was announced on November 5, 2009...

. This 190.2 miles (306.1 km) race took place on March 14, on the 2.536 miles (4.1 km) temporary street circuit in São Paulo, Brazil. The race was telecasted by Versus.

There are seven IndyCar drivers from Brazil competing in the series, including Ana Beatriz
Bia Figueiredo
Ana "Bia" Beatriz Caselato Gomes de Figueiredo is a Brazilian racing driver currently competing in the IZOD Indycar Series. Bia, as she is known by friends and fans, won her first Indy Lights race at Nashville Superspeedway on 12 July 2008, becoming the first woman to win a race in the Indy Lights...

, Hélio Castroneves
Hélio Castroneves
Hélio Castroneves is a Brazilian auto racing driver currently competing in the North American IndyCar Series. In IndyCar competition, Castroneves has 14 wins and 28 poles, and has never placed lower than sixth in the standings in a complete season of racing...

, Tony Kanaan
Tony Kanaan
Antoine Rizkallah Kanaan Filho, commonly known as Tony Kanaan is a Brazilian race car driver of Lebanese heritage. Kanaan won the 2004 Indy Racing League IndyCar Series championship driving Andretti Green Racing's 7-Eleven sponsored car, winning three times in his Honda-powered Dallara...

, Raphael Matos
Raphael Matos
Raphael Matos is a Brazilian racing driver from Belo Horizonte. He currently participates in the IZOD IndyCar Series for AFS Racing. He was the 2008 Firestone Indy Lights Series champion and the 2007 Champ Car Atlantic Series champion...

, Vitor Meira
Vitor Meira
Vitor Meira is an auto racing driver currently competing in the IndyCar Series. He has twice finished second in the Indianapolis 500....

, Mario Moraes
Mario Moraes
Mario Ermirio de Moraes Filho is a Brazilian professional race car driver. Moraes started his career in minor youth motorsports. In 2003 Moraes competed in American Formula Renault with and won races against some competition such as Marco Andretti. In 2005 he drove for the Bassan Motorsport team...

 and Mario Romancini
Mario Romancini
Mario Romancini is a professional racing driver from Brazil.Romancini started his racing career in 2006 in the Brazilian Formula Renault 2.0 series. Driving for the Full Time Racing Team, he took two podium finishes, including one race win, to finish the season in fifth place...

. São Paulo is the hometown of Beatriz, Castroneves, Moraes and Romancini.

Other sports

Volleyball, basketball and tennis are other major sports. There are several traditional sports club
Sports club
A sports club or sport club, sometimes athletics club or sports association is a club for the purpose of playing one or more sports...

s in São Paulo that are home for teams in many championships. The most important are Esporte Clube Pinheiros
Esporte Clube Pinheiros
The Esporte Clube Pinheiros is a sports and social club located in the Brazilian metropolis São Paulo, founded in 1899 as Sport Club Germânia by German immigrants. It has around 35,000 members and its terrain comprises 170,000 m² in the well regarded quarter of Jardim Europa...

 (waterpolo, volleyball, swimming, basketball and handball
Team handball
Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team...

), Clube Atlhetico Paulistano (basketball), Esporte Clube Banespa (volleyball, handball and futsal
Futsal
Futsal is a variant of association football that is played on a smaller pitch and mainly played indoors. Its name is a portmanteau of the Portuguese futebol de salão and the Spanish fútbol de salón , which can be translated as "hall football" or "indoor football"...

), Esporte Clube Sírio (basketball), Associação Atlética Hebraica (basketball), São Paulo Athletic Club
São Paulo Athletic Club
São Paulo Athletic Club, also known as SPAC, was a historic Brazilian football club founded on May 15, 1888 by Charles William Miller and several English immigrants, being one of the first football clubs in the country. The club's players were English employees of Companhia de Gás , London Bank and...

 (rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

), Pasteur Athlétique Club (rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

), Clube de Regatas Tietê and Clube Atlético Ipiranga, also, on Bom Retiro, we have the Baseball Stadium, Mie Nishi.

International sports events

The following international sports events have been held in São Paulo:
  • 1950
    1950 FIFA World Cup
    The 1950 FIFA World Cup, held in Brazil from 24 June to 16 July, was the fourth FIFA World Cup. It was the first World Cup since 1938, the planned 1942 and 1946 competitions having been canceled owing to World War II...

     – FIFA World Cup
    FIFA World Cup
    The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...

     (association football);
  • 1963
    1963 Pan American Games
    The 4th Pan American Games were held from April 20 to May 5, 1963 in São Paulo, Brazil.- Medal count :To sort this table by nation, total medal count, or any other column, click on the icon next to the column title.Note...

     – Pan American Games
    Pan American Games
    The Pan-American or Pan American Games are a major event in the Americas featuring summer and formerly winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Pan American Games are the second largest multi-sport event after the Summer Olympics...

     (Multi-sports);
  • 1971 – FIBA World Championship for Women
    FIBA World Championship for Women
    The FIBA World Championship for Women is a world basketball tournament for women's national teams held quadrennially...

    ;
  • 1977 – Women's U20 Volleyball World Championship;
  • 1983 – FIBA World Championship for Women
    FIBA World Championship for Women
    The FIBA World Championship for Women is a world basketball tournament for women's national teams held quadrennially...

    ;
  • 1993 – Volleyball World League;
  • 1994 – Women's Volleyball World Championship
    Volleyball World Championship
    The FIVB World Championship is an international men's and women's indoor volleyball competition. It is the oldest and most important of all the international events organized by the FIVB and must not be confused with the FIVB World Cup or the FIVB World League/FIVB World Grand Prix.-Origins:The...

    ;
  • 2000
    2000 FIFA Club World Championship
    The 2000 FIFA Club World Championship was the pilot edition of the FIFA Club World Championship held in Brazil from 5 January to 14 January 2000...

     – FIFA Club World Championship
    FIFA Club World Cup
    The FIFA Club World Cup is a football competition between the champion clubs from all six continental confederations.The first FIFA Club World Championship took place in Brazil in January 2000...

     (Football);
  • 2002
    2002 South American Games
    The VII South American Games were a multi-sport event held in 2002 in Rio de Janeiro,...

     – South American Games
    South American Games
    The South American Games , formerly the Southern Cross Games are a regional multi-sport event held between nations from South America, organized by the South American Sports Organization .The first...

     (Multi-sports);
  • 2005 – World Cup in Artistic Gymnastics
    Artistic gymnastics
    Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics where gymnasts perform short routines on different apparatus, with less time for vaulting . The sport is governed by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique , which designs the Code of Points and regulates all aspects of international elite...

    ;
  • 2006 – International Police
    International Police
    The International Police is the title used for an organization of police officers representing various countries throughout the world, brought together to assist in the training, organization, stabilization of a destabilized region, or creation of indigenous police forces primarily in war-torn...

     and Fire Games (Multi-sports);
  • 2006
    2006 FIBA World Championship for Women
    The 2006 FIBA World Championship for Women took place in Brazil from September 12 to September 23, 2006. It was co-organised by the International Basketball Federation and Confederação Brasileira de Basketball, the Brazilian national federation....

     – FIBA World Championship for Women
    FIBA World Championship for Women
    The FIBA World Championship for Women is a world basketball tournament for women's national teams held quadrennially...

     (Basketball);
  • 2006 – 13th World Cup Final in Artistic Gymnastics;
  • 2007 – 3rd International Blind Sports Association World Championships and Games;
  • 2014
    2014 FIFA World Cup
    The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be the 20th FIFA World Cup, an international association football tournament that will take place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014....

     – FIFA World Cup
    FIFA World Cup
    The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...

     (association football).

Highways

The city is crossed by 10 major Brazilian motorways and automobiles are still the main means to get into the city.
They are:
  • Rodovia Presidente Dutra
    Rodovia Presidente Dutra
    The Rodovia Presidente Dutra, , colloquially known as Via Dutra is a federal highway which runs through the eastern part of the state of São Paulo and southwestern region of the state Rio de Janeiro...

    /BR-116 (President Dutra highway) – Connects São Paulo to the east and north-east of the country. Most important connection: Rio de Janeiro
    Rio de Janeiro
    Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

    .
  • Rodovia Régis Bittencourt/BR-116 (Régis Bittencourt highway) – Connects São Paulo to the south of the country. Most important connections: Curitiba
    Curitiba
    Curitiba is the capital of the Brazilian state of Paraná. It is the largest city with the biggest economy of both Paraná and southern Brazil. The population of Curitiba numbers approximately 1.75 million people and the latest GDP figures for the city surpass US$61 billion according to...

     and Porto Alegre
    Porto Alegre
    Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...

    .
  • Rodovia Fernão Dias
    Rodovia Fernão Dias
    The Rodovia Fernão Dias is a federal highway which runs in the Brazilian states of São Paulo and southern region of Minas Gerais...

    /BR-381 (Fernão Dias highway) – Connects São Paulo to the north of the country. Most important connection: Belo Horizonte
    Belo Horizonte
    Belo Horizonte is the capital of and largest city in the state of Minas Gerais, located in the southeastern region of Brazil. It is the third largest metropolitan area in the country...

    .
  • Rodovia Anchieta
    Rodovia Anchieta
    Rodovia Anchieta is a highway connection between São Paulo and the Atlantic coast, the cities of Cubatão and Santos, in Brazil...

    /SP-150 (Anchieta Priest highway) – Connects São Paulo to the ocean coast. Mainly used for cargo transportation to Santos Port
    Port of Santos
    The Port of Santos is located in the city of Santos, Brazil. As of 2006, it is the busiest container port in Latin America. It possesses a wide variety of cargo handling terminals - solid and liquid bulk, containers and general loads. It is Brazil's leading port in container traffic...

    . Most important connection: Santos.
  • Rodovia dos Imigrantes
    Rodovia dos Imigrantes
    Rodovia dos Imigrantes is a highway in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.The highway connects the city of São Paulo to the Atlantic coast and with the seaside cities of São Vicente and Praia Grande. It follows the route of Rodovia Anchieta and is also one of Brazil's busiest highways, particularly on...

    /SP-150 (Immigrants highway) – Connects São Paulo to the ocean coast. Mainly used for tourism. Most important connections: Santos, São Vicente
    São Vicente, São Paulo
    São Vicente is a coastal city of southern São Paulo, Brazil. Its estimated population in 2006 was 329,370 inhabitants.It was the first Portuguese permanent settlement in the Americas and the first capital of the Captaincy of São Vicente, now the state of São Paulo...

    , Guarujá
    Guarujá
    Guarujá is a municipality in the São Paulo state of Brazil. The population in 2006 was 305,171, the population density is 1,969.47/km² and the area is 143 km². This place name comes from the Tupi language, and mean "narrow path". The population is highly urbanized.-Geography:Guarujá is...

     and Praia Grande
    Praia Grande
    Praia Grande is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil.-Population history:- History :Although the political emancipation is recent, the area covered today by the municipality of Praia Grande was one of the first areas colonized by the Portuguese, which began with the arrival of Martim...

    .
  • Rodovia Castelo Branco
    Rodovia Castelo Branco
    Rodovia Presidente Castelo Branco is a tollway in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It was first opened on November 10, 1968, by, then, the Governor of the state of São Paulo, Abreu Sodré...

    /SP-280 (President Castelo Branco highway) – Connects São Paulo to the west and north-west
    Cardinal direction
    The four cardinal directions or cardinal points are the directions of north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials: N, E, S, W. East and west are at right angles to north and south, with east being in the direction of rotation and west being directly opposite. Intermediate...

     of the country. Most important connections: Osasco
    Osasco
    Osasco is a municipality and city in São Paulo State, Brazil, is located in the Greater São Paulo and ranking 5th in population among São Paulo municipalities. The current mayor is Emidio Pereira de Souza ....

    , Sorocaba
    Sorocaba
    Sorocaba is a city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Sorocaba is the fourth largest city in the state of São Paulo. Outside the Greater São Paulo region, it ranks behind only Campinas, Sao Jose dos Campos and Ribeirão Preto...

    , Bauru
    Bauru
    Bauru is a Brazilian city and municipality in midwestern region of the state of São Paulo. It is also the capital of the micro-region of Bauru...

    , Jaú
    Jaú
    Jaú is a municipality in the center of the state of São Paulo, in Brazil. The population in 2008 was 133,333 and the area is 690.18 km². The elevation is 522 m...

     and Campo Grande
    Campo Grande
    -Climate:Campo Grande has a highland tropical climate, semi-humid, hot, and notably seasonal, with a dry winter season from May through September or October. Under the Koppen climate classification Campo Grande features a tropical wet and dry climate, albeit a noticeably cooler version of the...

    .
  • Rodovia Raposo Tavares
    Rodovia Raposo Tavares
    Rodovia Raposo Tavares is the longest highway in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, with 664 km.The highway starts in the city of São Paulo and continues westward, serving the main cities of Cotia, Vargem Grande Paulista, São Roque, Sorocaba, Itapetininga, Angatuba, Ourinhos, Assis, Presidente...

    /SP-270 (Raposo Tavares highway) – Connects São Paulo to the west of the country. Most important connections: Cotia
    Cotia
    Cotia is a city in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2006 was 179,685. The city is at an altitude of 853 m, its density is 554.77/km² and the area is 324 km². Cotia is linked with the Rodovia Raposo Tavares highway.- History :...

    , Sorocaba
    Sorocaba
    Sorocaba is a city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Sorocaba is the fourth largest city in the state of São Paulo. Outside the Greater São Paulo region, it ranks behind only Campinas, Sao Jose dos Campos and Ribeirão Preto...

    , Presidente Prudente
    Presidente Prudente
    Presidente Prudente is a municipality in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The city has a population of 207,610 inhabitants and area of 562.8 km². The city is named after president Prudente de Morais. Prudente is located 558 km from the city of São Paulo.Presidente Prudente is considered the...

    .
  • Rodovia Anhangüera
    Rodovia Anhangüera
    Rodovia Anhangüera is a highway in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It is one of the country's busiest transportation corridors...

    /SP-330 (Anhanguera highway) – Connects São Paulo to the north-west of the country, including its capital city. Most important connections: Campinas
    Campinas
    Campinas is a city and municipality located in the coastal interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. is the administrative center of the meso-region of the same name, with 3,783,597 inhabitants as of the 2010 Census, consisting of 49 cities....

    , Ribeirão Preto
    Ribeirão Preto
    Ribeirão Preto is a municipality and city in the Northeastern region of the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is nicknamed Brazilian California, because of a combination of an economy based on agrobusiness plus high technology, wealth and sunny weather all year long. With 605,114 inhabitants,...

     and Brasília
    Brasília
    Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...

    .
  • Rodovia dos Bandeirantes
    Rodovia dos Bandeirantes
    Rodovia Bandeirantes is a highway in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.Once the traffic capacity of Anhangüera Highway was exceeded in the 1960s, the state government decided to built another highway, with a much higher capacity and modern design, directly connecting São Paulo City to Jundiaí,...

    /SP-348 (Bandeirantes highway) – Connects São Paulo to the north-west of the country. It is considered the best motorway of Brazil. Most important connections: Campinas
    Campinas
    Campinas is a city and municipality located in the coastal interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. is the administrative center of the meso-region of the same name, with 3,783,597 inhabitants as of the 2010 Census, consisting of 49 cities....

    , Ribeirão Preto
    Ribeirão Preto
    Ribeirão Preto is a municipality and city in the Northeastern region of the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is nicknamed Brazilian California, because of a combination of an economy based on agrobusiness plus high technology, wealth and sunny weather all year long. With 605,114 inhabitants,...

    , Piracicaba
    Piracicaba
    Piracicaba is a city located in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. The population in 2009 was 368,843 in an area of 1,369.511 km², at an elevation of 547 m above sea level.-Name:...

     and São José do Rio Preto
    São José do Rio Preto
    São José do Rio Preto is a city and municipality in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Is located at the north/northwest portion of the state, 450 km from the city of São Paulo and 700 km from Brasília....

    .
  • Rodovia Ayrton Senna
    Rodovia Ayrton Senna
    Rodovia Ayrton Senna da Silva , is a highway in the state of São Paulo, Brazil....

    /SP-70 (Ayrton Senna highway) – Named after Brazilian Formula One
    Formula One
    Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...

     pilot Ayrton Senna
    Ayrton Senna
    Ayrton Senna da Silva was a Brazilian racing driver. A three-time Formula One world champion, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time...

    , this motorway connects São Paulo to east locations of the state, as well as the north coast of the state. Most important connections: São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport, São José dos Campos
    São José dos Campos
    São José dos Campos is a municipality and a major city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil and one of the most important industrial and research centers in Latin America. It is located in the Paraíba Valley, between the two most active production and consumption regions in the country, São Paulo ...

     and Caraguatatuba
    Caraguatatuba
    Caraguatatuba, widely known by its abbreviation Caraguá, is a city in the eastern part of the southern state of São Paulo in Brazil. The name comes from the Tupi language and one of the words includes tuba meaning many. Caraguatatuba is the largest city of São Paulo north shore.The economy of the...

    .

Rodoanel

São Paulo grew quickly from the 1940s to the 1980s and many roads and buildings were built without major planning. As a result, heavy traffic is common on the city's main avenues, and traffic jams
Traffic congestion
Traffic congestion is a condition on road networks that occurs as use increases, and is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. The most common example is the physical use of roads by vehicles. When traffic demand is great enough that the interaction...

 are relatively common on its largest highways. The main means of commuting into the city is by car and by bus. In March 2011, there are more 7 million vehicles registered. An effective way of avoiding heavy vehicles traffic in the city, such as buses and trucks that crossed the city for other destinations, was planned by ex-governor Mário Covas
Mário Covas
Mário Covas Júnior was a Brazilian politician.Covas studied engineering at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo. He entered politics in his native city of Santos, in the state of São Paulo....

 as a road ring that circles the city, called Rodoanel Mario Covas, and is being built by DERSA.

Railways

The two major São Paulo train stations
Train station
A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...

 are Luz and Julio Prestes in the Luz/Campos Eliseos region. Luz is the seat of the Santos-Jundiaí
Jundiaí
Jundiaí is a city and municipality in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The population in 2009 was 349,929, and the area is 433.958 km². The elevation is 761 m. Distance is 60 km north of the city of São Paulo.- History and Geography :...

 line which historically transported international immigrants
Immigration to Brazil
Immigration to Brazil is the movement to Brazil of foreign persons to reside permanently. It should not be confused with the colonisation of the country by the Portuguese, or with the forcible bringing of people from Africa as slaves....

 from the Santos port to São Paulo and the coffee plantation lands in the Western region of Campinas
Campinas
Campinas is a city and municipality located in the coastal interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. is the administrative center of the meso-region of the same name, with 3,783,597 inhabitants as of the 2010 Census, consisting of 49 cities....

. Julio Prestes connected the SW São Paulo State and Northern Paraná
Paraná (state)
Paraná is one of the states of Brazil, located in the South of the country, bordered on the north by São Paulo state, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Santa Catarina state and the Misiones Province of Argentina, and on the west by Mato Grosso do Sul and the republic of Paraguay,...

 State to São Paulo and products were transferred to Luz Station from which they headed to the Atlantic ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

 and overseas. Julio Prestes ceased from transporting passengers through the Sorocabana or FEPASA lines and now only has limited suburban service. Due to its acoustics and the beauty of its interior, surrounded by Greek revival columns, part of the rebuilt station was transformed into the São Paulo Hall, or Sala São Paulo, home of the internationally, known São Paulo Orchestra.

Luz Station
Luz Station
The Luz Station is the common name for a train station in the Luz neighbourhood in São Paulo, Brazil. The station is part of the metropolitan rail system ran by the CPTM. The station is mostly notable for housing the Museum of the Portuguese Language, established in 2006...

, which was built in Britain and assembled in Brazil, has an underground station and is still very active with east and westbound suburban trains that link São Paulo to the Greater São Paulo region to the East and the Campinas Metropolitan region in Jundiaí in the western part of the State. Besides housing the interactive Museu da Língua Portuguesa
Museum of the Portuguese Language
The Museum of the Portuguese Language is an interactive Portuguese language — and Linguistics/Language Development in general — museum in São Paulo, Brazil. It is housed in the Estação da Luz train station, in the urban district of the same name...

 (Portuguese Language Museum), Luz Station is surrounded by important cultural
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

 institutions such as the Pinacoteca do Estado, The Museu de Arte Sacra on Tiradentes Avenue and Jardim da Luz, among others.
Although poorly maintained by heavy rail services, there is an infrastructure project to build a high-speed railway
Rio–São Paulo High-speed rail
Rio–São Paulo high-speed rail is a planned high-speed rail project to connect Brazil's two largest cities: São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. While originally planned to be operational by 2014, in time for the 20th FIFA World Cup to be held in Brazil, at a cost of $9 billion, as of February 2010...

 service linking Brazil's two largest cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The trains would go as fast as 280 kilometres per hour (174 mph) (the trip would last about 1 hour and 30 minutes). This specific project is still waiting an official announcement by the Brazilian government, who is trying to obtain international financing through a public-private partnership.

Another important project is the "Expresso Bandeirantes," which is a medium-speed rail service (about 160 km/h) from São Paulo to Campinas
Campinas
Campinas is a city and municipality located in the coastal interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. is the administrative center of the meso-region of the same name, with 3,783,597 inhabitants as of the 2010 Census, consisting of 49 cities....

, which would reduce the journey time from the current one hour and a half by car to about 50 minutes by train, linking the towns of São Paulo, Jundiaí
Jundiaí
Jundiaí is a city and municipality in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The population in 2009 was 349,929, and the area is 433.958 km². The elevation is 761 m. Distance is 60 km north of the city of São Paulo.- History and Geography :...

, Campinas Airport, and Campinas city center. This service is also going to be connected to the railway service between São Paulo city center and Guarulhos Airport. Major works on an express railway service between São Paulo city center and Guarulhos International Airport
International airport
An international airport is any airport that can accommodate flights from other countries and are typically equipped with customs and immigration facilities to handle these flights to and from other countries...

 were announced by the São Paulo state government in 2007, which will be a milestone in the revitalisation and improvement of the Brazilian passenger railway services.

Airports

São Paulo has two main airports. The São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport  for the international flights and the Congonhas-São Paulo Airport  for domestic and regional flights. Another airport, the Campo de Marte Airport
Campo de Marte Airport
Campo de Marte Airport is the first airport built in São Paulo, Brazil, opened in 1919. It is named after Champ de Mars, in Paris, which in turn got its name from Campus Martius, in Rome....

, serves light aircraft and helicopters. The three airports together moved 42,617,779 passengers in 2010, making São Paulo one of the top 30 busiest in the world, by number of air passenger movements. The region of Greater São Paulo
Greater São Paulo
The Greater São Paulo is a nonspecific term for one of the multiple definitions the large metropolitan area located in the São Paulo state in Brazil.-Definitions:-Metropolitan Area:...

 is also served by São José dos Campos Airport and Viracopos-Campinas International Airport.

Congonhas Airport operates flights mainly to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

, Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte is the capital of and largest city in the state of Minas Gerais, located in the southeastern region of Brazil. It is the third largest metropolitan area in the country...

 and Brasília
Brasília
Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...

. After the upgrade work by Infraero has been completed, passengers now enjoy new boarding lounges, located on the mezzanine level, accessed by escalators. Besides this, eight boarding
Boarding (transport)
Boarding is a term to describe the entry of passengers onto a vehicle, usually in public transportation. Boarding starts with entering the vehicle and ends with the seating of each passenger and closure of the doors...

 bridges were installed to provide more comfort to passengers by eliminating the need to walk in the open to their flights.

The terminal area was expanded from 37.3 thousand to over 51 thousand square meters. This expansion did not seek to raise capacity, which was already saturated, but only to satisfy current demand. Congonhas Airport, built in the 1930s, was designed to handle 6 million passengers a year and was operating with 12 million a year. The ample new boarding area, separated from the main concourse, adds greatly to passenger comfort.

Campo de Marte is located in Santana
Santana (São Paulo)
Santana is a northern district in the subprefecture of Santana-Tucuruvi of the city of São Paulo, Brazil, and is located between 4-7 km from downtown São Paulo.-History:...

 district, the northern zone
Zoning
Zoning is a device of land use planning used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...

 of São Paulo. The airport handles small aircraft, particularly private craft belonging to flying clubs and air taxi
Air taxi
An air taxi is an air charter passenger or cargo aircraft which operates on an on-demand basis.-Regulation:In the United States, air taxi and air charter operations are governed by Part 135 of the Federal Aviation Regulations , unlike the larger scheduled air carriers which are governed by more...

 firms. Opened in 1935, Campo de Marte today is the base for the largest helicopter fleet in Brazil. It has no scheduled airlines, but its terminal
Airport terminal
An airport terminal is a building at an airport where passengers transfer between ground transportation and the facilities that allow them to board and disembark from aircraft....

 is equipped with a snack bar, restaurant and bank branch. This airport also is the home base of the State Civil Police Air Tactical Unit, the State Military Police Radio Patrol Unit and the São Paulo Flying Club.

A city with possibly the world's highest helicopter ownership rate. Largely using this airport, an elite wealthy class takes advantage of some one hundred remote helipads and heliports to conveniently bypass heavy road traffic. Campo de Marte also hosts the Ventura Goodyear Blimp
Goodyear Blimp
The Goodyear Blimp is the collective name for a fleet of blimps operated by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company for advertising purposes and for use as a television camera platform for aerial views of sporting events...

.

The Guarulhos International, also known to São Paulo dwellers as "Cumbica" is 25 km (15.5 mi) north-east of the city center, in the neighbouring city of Guarulhos
Guarulhos
Guarulhos is the second largest city in the Brazilian state of São Paulo and a suburb of São Paulo city itself. In the last few years it has outgrown Campinas. The population in 2006 is 1,283,253, the density is 4,035.26 inh./km² and the area is 318 km²...

. Every day nearly 100 thousand people pass through the airport, which connects Brazil to 28 countries around the world. There are 370 companies established there generating 53 thousand employments. With capacity to serve 15 million passengers a year, in two terminals, the airport currently handles 12 million users.

Construction of a third passenger terminal is pending, to raise yearly capacity to more than 45 million passengers. The project, in the tendering phase, is part of the airport’s master plan and will get under way shortly. São Paulo International Airport is also the main air cargo hubs in Brazil. The roughly 100 flights a day carry everything from fruits grown in the São Francisco Valley in the Northeast to the most sophisticated medications created by science in the Southeast. The airport's cargo terminal is South America's largest and stands behind only Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

's in all of Latin America. In 2003, over 75 thousand metric tons of freight passed through the terminal.

Metro

The city has actually 379,7 km, operated by three companies, the first is 69 km (42.9 mi) of underground railway systems (34.6 km (21.4) fully underground) (the São Paulo Metro
São Paulo Metro
The São Paulo Metro is the principal rapid-transit system in the city of São Paulo and the largest in Brazil. It is also the second largest system in South America and the third largest in Latin America, behind Mexico City and Santiago....

, locally known as the Metrô
São Paulo Metro
The São Paulo Metro is the principal rapid-transit system in the city of São Paulo and the largest in Brazil. It is also the second largest system in South America and the third largest in Latin America, behind Mexico City and Santiago....

), with 5 lines in operation and 59 stations,but at this moment other stations and extensions of two line are in work, thisis complemented by another 260.7 km (162 mi) of Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos
Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos
Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos is a commuter rail company owned by the São Paulo State Secretariat for Metropolitan Transports. It was created in 1992 from several railroads that already existed in Greater São Paulo, Brazil....

 (CPTM, or "Paulista Company of Metropolitan Trains") railways, the third one is Via4. Both CPTM, Via4 and Metrô, so the underground and railway lines carry some 7 million people on an average weekday, and new underground lines to be constructed are expected to add another million people to the system within the next five years. The projects expected to expand São Paulo's urban railway
Urban rail transit
Urban rail transit is an all-encompassing term for various types of local rail systems providing passenger service within and around urban or suburban areas...

 system from the current 322 km (200.1 mi) to more than 500 km (310.7 mi) on the next 10 years, surpassing the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

.
São Paulo has three rapid transport systems:
  • The underground rail system
    Rail transport
    Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...

     (called "metrô", short for "metropolitano" and in plates in English is called "subway"), with three complete lines.
  • The suburban rail
    Regional rail
    Commuter rail, also called suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates between a city center, and the middle to outer suburbs beyond 15km and commuter towns or other locations that draw large numbers of commuters—people who travel on a daily basis...

     system, Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos
    Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos
    Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos is a commuter rail company owned by the São Paulo State Secretariat for Metropolitan Transports. It was created in 1992 from several railroads that already existed in Greater São Paulo, Brazil....

     (CPTM), has six lines that serve many regions not reached by the underground system, and even some other cities in the metropolitan region. The CPTM network is longer than the underground rail system.
  • The fast-lane bus
    Bus
    A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

     system: there are many such bus lines in the city, called "Passa Rápido," which are street-level, placed on large avenues, and connected with the underground or suburban train stations.

São Paulo has no tram lines, although trams used to be common in the first half of the 20th century. São Paulo's underground train system is considered modern, safe and clean and, although it still has some problems with overcrowding, it was considered one of the best subway
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...

 systems, as certified by the NBR ISO 9001
ISO 9000
The ISO 9000 family of standards relates to quality management systems and is designed to help organizations ensure they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders . The standards are published by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, and available through National...

. It has five lines and links to the metropolitan train network, the CPTM.
The São Paulo Metro last year reached the mark of 11.5 million passengers every mile of line. The number is 15% higher than in 2008, when 10 million users were taken per mile. It is the largest concentration of people in a single transport system in the world, according to the company.

Also in 2008, the Moscow metro, in Russia, moved 8.6 million people for every mile of track. The Shanghai, China, took 7 million, according to the Community of Metros (Comet, English acronym), an organization that brings together representatives of the 12 largest metro systems in the world. Data from last year have not been released by Comet.

Every day last year, 2.56 million people passed through the turnstiles of the subway capital, on average. If taken into account transshipments, these passengers have about 3.5 million trips per day, according to balance sheet contained in the "Management Report 2010" released yesterday with the company's balance sheet. The number of entries in the stations was 6.8% higher than recorded in 2009.

While the total number of passengers has increased the satisfaction of those who use the system decreased. The survey "The Metro according to its user: a service evaluation" of last year showed that 60% of respondents rated the means of transport as "very good" and "good." In 2009, the notes were 67% positive. The survey is conducted since 1974.

Buses

The bulk of the public transport (government and private companies) is composed of approximately 17,000 buses (including about 290 trolley buses
Trolleybus
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...

), coloured uniformly according to the non-central region served (ex.: light green for the buses that go North West, dark blue for the Northern area). Until the past few years, there was a strong presence of informal transport vans (dab vans), but the vast majority of such vans are already fully registered with the city council
City council
A city council or town council is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area.-Australia & NZ:Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council varies...

, legalized and operating under the same color scheme of the main system.

São Paulo Tietê Bus Terminal
Tietê Bus Terminal
The Tietê Bus Terminal is the largest bus terminal in Latin America, and the second largest in the world, after the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. The terminal is located in the Santana district in the city of São Paulo, Brazil...

 is the second largest bus terminal in the world. It serves localities in all the States of Brazil, with the exception of Amazonas, Roraima
Roraima
Roraima is the northernmost and least populated state of Brazil, located in the Amazon region. It borders the states of Amazonas and Pará, as well as the nations of Venezuela and Guyana. The population is 400,000 and the capital is Boa Vista...

 and Amapá
Amapá
Amapá is one of the states of Brazil, located in the extreme north, bordering French Guiana and Suriname to the north. To the east is the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south and west is the Brazilian state of Pará. Perhaps one of the main features of the state is the River Oiapoque, as it was once...

. There are routes to 1,010 cities in five countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay). It offers a special line to the Congonhas and Guarulhos airports, and a ride sharing
Carpool
Carpooling , is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car....

 automobile service to Santos.

The Palmeiras-Barra Funda Intermodal Terminal
Palmeiras-Barra Funda Intermodal Terminal
Palmeiras-Barra Funda Intermodal Terminal is the second largest intermodal transportation hub in São Paulo, Brazil. The terminal has access to the São Paulo Metro, CPTM commuter rail, and numerous bus lines.- Locations served :Domestic destinations...

 is much smaller and is connected to the Palmeiras-Barra Funda metro and Palmeiras-Barra Funda CPTM stations. It serves the southwestern cities of Sorocaba
Sorocaba
Sorocaba is a city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Sorocaba is the fourth largest city in the state of São Paulo. Outside the Greater São Paulo region, it ranks behind only Campinas, Sao Jose dos Campos and Ribeirão Preto...

, Itapetininga, Itu, Botucatu, Bauru
Bauru
Bauru is a Brazilian city and municipality in midwestern region of the state of São Paulo. It is also the capital of the micro-region of Bauru...

, Marília
Marília
Marília is a Brazilian city and municipality in the midwestern region of the state of São Paulo. Its distance from the state capital is by highway, by railway and in a straight line. It is located at latitude 22º 12'50 "south and longitude 49º 56'45" west, with an altitude of 675 meters...

, Jaú
Jaú
Jaú is a municipality in the center of the state of São Paulo, in Brazil. The population in 2008 was 133,333 and the area is 690.18 km². The elevation is 522 m...

, Avaré
Avaré, São Paulo
Avaré is a city in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, located 270 km from the capital. Established on September 15, 1861 by Major Vitoriano de Souza Rocha and Domiciano Santana, the city was developed around the chapel of Our Lady of the Good Death .The population in 2000 was about 77,000...

, Piraju
Piraju
Piraju is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2004 was 28,831. The area is 506.48 km². The elevation is 646 m. This place name comes from the Tupi language.- External links : http://www.portalpiraju.com...

, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo
Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo
Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2005 was 42,259 and the area is 1116 km². The elevation is 467 m....

, Ipaussu
Ipaussu
Ipaussu is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2004 is 13,141. This place name comes from the Tupi language....

, Chavantes
Chavantes
Chavantes is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2003 is 12,437 and the area is 188.16 km². The elevation is 563 m.-Location:...

, and Ourinhos
Ourinhos
Ourinhos is a municipality/county in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2010 is 103,026 and the area is . The elevation is .The city of Ourinhos was emancipated from Salto Grande in the 1910s...

 (on the border with Paraná
Paraná (state)
Paraná is one of the states of Brazil, located in the South of the country, bordered on the north by São Paulo state, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Santa Catarina state and the Misiones Province of Argentina, and on the west by Mato Grosso do Sul and the republic of Paraguay,...

 State). It also serves São José do Rio Preto
São José do Rio Preto
São José do Rio Preto is a city and municipality in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Is located at the north/northwest portion of the state, 450 km from the city of São Paulo and 700 km from Brasília....

, Araçatuba
Araçatuba
Araçatuba is a city located in the northwest of São Paulo state, Brazil. The city has 181.579 inhabitants and 1,167.4 km² of area. The city name comes from the Tupi language and means "abundance of araçá "...

 and other small towns located on the northwest of São Paulo State.

For buses to São Paulo coast, travelers need to get off at the Jabaquara metro station
Jabaquara (São Paulo Metro)
Jabaquara is a station on Line 1 of the São Paulo Metro and is the current terminus. It will be integrated with the planned Line 17 ....

, which is the final southbound stop on Line 1 (Blue)
Line 1 (São Paulo Metro)
Line 1 - Blue was the first line built for the São Paulo Metro. It links Tucuruvi Station to Jabaquara Station. Construction began in the late 1960s and was completed in the early 1970s. It was also the first metro line built in Brazil.-History:...

 of the São Paulo Metro
São Paulo Metro
The São Paulo Metro is the principal rapid-transit system in the city of São Paulo and the largest in Brazil. It is also the second largest system in South America and the third largest in Latin America, behind Mexico City and Santiago....

. The Litoral bus terminal serves Praia Grande
Praia Grande
Praia Grande is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil.-Population history:- History :Although the political emancipation is recent, the area covered today by the municipality of Praia Grande was one of the first areas colonized by the Portuguese, which began with the arrival of Martim...

, Santos and São Vicente
São Vicente, São Paulo
São Vicente is a coastal city of southern São Paulo, Brazil. Its estimated population in 2006 was 329,370 inhabitants.It was the first Portuguese permanent settlement in the Americas and the first capital of the Captaincy of São Vicente, now the state of São Paulo...

 on the South Shore and Mongaguá
Mongaguá
Mongaguá is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2006 is 46,977, the population density is 328.11/km² and the area is 143 km². The name comes from the Tupi language....

, Bertioga
Bertioga
Bertioga is a Brazilian town of the state of São Paulo in the Baixada Santista. The population in 2004 was 35,759. However, because it neighbors resort towns, its population fluctuates greatly with the seasons. The population density is 72.68/km² and it has an area of 492 km². The more...

, and Guarujá
Guarujá
Guarujá is a municipality in the São Paulo state of Brazil. The population in 2006 was 305,171, the population density is 1,969.47/km² and the area is 143 km². This place name comes from the Tupi language, and mean "narrow path". The population is highly urbanized.-Geography:Guarujá is...

 on the North Shore. Buses to North Shore cities such as Maresia
Maresia
Maresia is a genus of moths of the Noctuidae family.-References:*...

, Riviera de São Lourenço, Caraguatatuba
Caraguatatuba
Caraguatatuba, widely known by its abbreviation Caraguá, is a city in the eastern part of the southern state of São Paulo in Brazil. The name comes from the Tupi language and one of the words includes tuba meaning many. Caraguatatuba is the largest city of São Paulo north shore.The economy of the...

, Ubatuba, and Paraty
Paraty
Paraty [pronounced Par-a-CHEE] is a preserved Portuguese colonial and Brazilian Imperial town with a population of about 36,000. It is located on the Costa Verde , a lush, green corridor that runs along the coastline of the state of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil...

, in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro (state)
Rio de Janeiro is one of the 27 states of Brazil.Rio de Janeiro has the second largest economy of Brazil behind only São Paulo state.The state of Rio de Janeiro is located within the Brazilian geopolitical region classified as the Southeast...

 State must be taken at the Tietê Bus Terminal
Tietê Bus Terminal
The Tietê Bus Terminal is the largest bus terminal in Latin America, and the second largest in the world, after the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. The terminal is located in the Santana district in the city of São Paulo, Brazil...

, at Portuguesa-Tietê metro station
Portuguesa-Tietê (São Paulo Metro)
Portuguesa-Tietê is a station on Line 1 of the São Paulo Metro.The station provides access to the Tietê Bus Terminal, the largest such terminal in Latin America, and the second largest in the world....

 on Line 1 (Blue)
Line 1 (São Paulo Metro)
Line 1 - Blue was the first line built for the São Paulo Metro. It links Tucuruvi Station to Jabaquara Station. Construction began in the late 1960s and was completed in the early 1970s. It was also the first metro line built in Brazil.-History:...

.

Helicopters

Due to the intense traffic jams on the roads combined with fears of kidnappings among its richer citizens, São Paulo has become the city with the highest number of helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

s in the world. With 462 private helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

s in 2008, and around 70,000 flights per year within central São Paulo, according to the British newspaper The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

, is turning into a "real life South-American episode" of The Jetsons
The Jetsons
The Jetsons is a animated American sitcom that was produced by Hanna-Barbera, originally airing in prime-time from 1962–1963 and again from 1985–1987...

.

Helicopters enable businessmen and other executives to sharply reduce their commuting time, at least to the most important meetings and conferences. They are also used to bring executives
Executive officer
An executive officer is generally a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.-Administrative law:...

 in from their homes in distant parts of the greater metropolitan area
Metropolitan area
The term metropolitan area refers to a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing. A metropolitan area usually encompasses multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships,...

 and back to them at the end of the work week
Workweek
The workweek and weekend are those complementary parts of the week devoted to labour and rest respectively. The legal working week , or workweek , is the part of the seven-day week devoted to labor. In most Western countries it is Monday to Friday. The weekend comprises the two traditionally...

. Some companies own their helicopters, others lease them, and still others use helicopter taxi
Air taxi
An air taxi is an air charter passenger or cargo aircraft which operates on an on-demand basis.-Regulation:In the United States, air taxi and air charter operations are governed by Part 135 of the Federal Aviation Regulations , unlike the larger scheduled air carriers which are governed by more...

 services. One suburban helicopter shuttle service, located about 15 miles (24.1 km) from the center of the city in a suburb called Tamboré, is unique in the sense that it is run and operated totally by women, including its pilots
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

.

Current critical problems

Crime in São Paulo was a constant issue. For two decades, São Paulo's murder rate was consistently higher than the average for Brazil. The murder rate in São Paulo fell below the average rate for Brazil in 2004. The city made strides in gun control, and the local police raised the homicide solving rate from 8 percent to 70 percent from the 1990s to 2008.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, São Paulo has been a major economic center in Latin America. With the arrival of the two World Wars
World war
A world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. World wars span multiple countries on multiple continents, with battles fought in multiple theaters....

 and the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, coffee exports (from other regions of the state) to the United States and Europe were critically affected, leading wealthy coffee farmers to invest in industrial activities which eventually turned São Paulo into Brazil's largest industrial hub. The new job positions thereof contributed to attracting a significant number of immigrants from Europe and Asia and migrants from within the country, especially the northeastern states. From a population of merely 32,000 inhabitants in 1880, São Paulo increased its population to approximately 250,000 in 1900, 1,800,000 in 1940, 4,750,000 in 1960 and 8,500,000 in 1980. The effects of this population boom
Population growth
Population growth is the change in a population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals of any species in a population using "per unit time" for measurement....

 have been:
  • Poverty and development of favelas
  • Although urban planning
    Urban planning
    Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....

     has been implemented in some areas, São Paulo has developed quickly without major planning.
  • Overcrowded public transport associated with a high number of cars and other vehicles in circulation lead to consistently congested traffic
    Traffic congestion
    Traffic congestion is a condition on road networks that occurs as use increases, and is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. The most common example is the physical use of roads by vehicles. When traffic demand is great enough that the interaction...

     on many roads of the city.
  • Due to heavy usage and poor maintenance, the quality of the pavement on certain roads (especially in the outskirts of the city) is problematic, and pothole
    Pothole
    A pothole is a type of disruption in the surface of a roadway where a portion of the road material has broken away, leaving a hole.- Formation :...

    s and other asphalt defects are common.
  • For a long time considered to be one of the most critical problems found in the city, crime rates
    Crime statistics
    Crime statistics attempt to provide statistical measures of the crime in societies. Given that crime is usually secretive by nature, measurements of it are likely to be inaccurate....

     are, finally, about to reach acceptable levels, according to the UN parameters of violence, with its numbers consistently decreasing for the past 8 years. The number of murders state-wide in 2007 was 67% lower than it was in 2000, one-quarter of that in the State of Rio de Janeiro
    Rio de Janeiro (state)
    Rio de Janeiro is one of the 27 states of Brazil.Rio de Janeiro has the second largest economy of Brazil behind only São Paulo state.The state of Rio de Janeiro is located within the Brazilian geopolitical region classified as the Southeast...

    .
  • High air pollution, mainly due to the high circulation of automobiles and buses in town.
  • The two major rivers crossing the city, Tietê
    Tietê, São Paulo
    Tietê is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2004 was 35,214 and the area is 396.56 km². The elevation is 508 m....

     and Pinheiros, are highly polluted. A major project to clean up these rivers is under way.

Solutions

  • The Clean City Law or antibillboard
    Billboard
    Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

    , approved in 2007, focused on two main targets: antipublicity and anticommerce
    Commerce
    While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...

    . Advertisers estimate that they removed 15,000 billboards and that more than 1,600 signs and 1,300 towering metal panels were dismantled by authorities.
  • Some countries have adopted vehicular
    Vehicle
    A vehicle is a device that is designed or used to transport people or cargo. Most often vehicles are manufactured, such as bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, boats, and aircraft....

     restrictions in order to reduce air pollution levels. In São Paulo metropolitan region
    Greater São Paulo
    The Greater São Paulo is a nonspecific term for one of the multiple definitions the large metropolitan area located in the São Paulo state in Brazil.-Definitions:-Metropolitan Area:...

    , the vehicle restriction was adopted from 1996 to 1998, in order to reduce air pollution, during wintertime. Since 1997, a similar project was implemented during the whole year in the central area of São Paulo in order to improve the urban traffic.

Human development

In 2007 the city of São Paulo conducted a survey about the quality of life of its inhabitants to help the government in the framing of social policy. The indicator used was the HDI – the same used by the UN for qualifying the development of the countries in the world.

It was noted in this survey that the neighborhoods around or in the geographical center of the city tend to be more developed than those located in the fringes. In 2000, top neighborhoods possessed human development indexes
Human Development Index
The Human Development Index is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate "very high human development", "high human development", "medium human development", and "low human development" countries...

 equal to or greater than those of Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

n countries, while neighborhoods in the lower range were in line with, for example, North Africa.

Top districts
  • Moema (0.961) – (Equal to  Canada – 0.961)
  • Pinheiros
    Pinheiros
    Pinheiros is a district in the subprefecture of the same name in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Prior to development, the land which this borough occupies was dominated by the dense forest which contained a Brazilian subtropical species of pine, Araucaria angustifolia, which is also the symbol of...

     (0.960) – (Equal to  Republic of Ireland – 0.960)
  • Jardim Paulista
    Jardim Paulista
    Jardim Paulista is a district in the subprefecture of Pinheiros in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.Grupo Pão de Açúcar has its headquarters in the district.-References:...

     (0.957) – (Greater than  Sweden – 0.956)
  • Itaim Bibi
    Itaim Bibi
    Itaim Bibi is a district in the subprefecture of Pinheiros in the city of São Paulo, Brazil....

     (0.953) – (Equal to  Japan,  Netherlands – 0.953)


Districts in last 5 places
  • Marsilac
    Marsilac
    Marsilac is a neighborhood located in the extreme south of the city of São Paulo. Belonging to the subprefecture of Parelheiros. its name is a tribute to engineer Jose Alfredo Marsilac, who developed many techniques for building roads and tunnels even after losing 99% of his vision from being hit...

     (0.701) – (In line with  Mongolia – 0.700)
  • Parelheiros
    Parelheiros
    Parelheiros is rural district located in the extreme south of the city of São Paulo, and is also one of the districts with the largest territorial area. Very little of this area is inhabited, and is covered with reserves of the Atlantic Forest...

     (0.747) – (In line with  Azerbaijan – 0.746)
  • Lajeado
    Lajeado, São Paulo
    Lajeado is a district in the subprefecture of Guaianases of the city of São Paulo....

     (0.748) – (In line with  Azerbaijan – 0.746)
  • Jardim Ângela
    Jardim Ângela
    Jardim Ângela is a district in the subprefecture of M'Boi Mirim of the city of São Paulo, Brazil....

     (0.750) – (In line with  Guyana – 0.750)
  • Iguatemi
    Iguatemi, São Paulo
    Iguatemi is a district in the subprefecture of São Mateus in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.The area where the district is located, until the end of the1960s, was composed of sites and farms and was known as Guabirobeira and Mall...

     (0.751) – (In line with  Guyana – 0.750)

Twin towns – sister cities

São Paulo is twinned with:
  Americas   Europe   Asia   Africa
  Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

, Argentina
  Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France
  Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...

, Armenia
  Luanda
Luanda
Luanda, formerly named São Paulo da Assunção de Loanda, is the capital and largest city of Angola. Located on Angola's coast with the Atlantic Ocean, Luanda is both Angola's chief seaport and its administrative center. It has a population of at least 5 million...

, Angola
  La Paz
La Paz
Nuestra Señora de La Paz is the administrative capital of Bolivia, as well as the departmental capital of the La Paz Department, and the second largest city in the country after Santa Cruz de la Sierra...

, Bolivia
  Coimbra
Coimbra
Coimbra is a city in the municipality of Coimbra in Portugal. Although it served as the nation's capital during the High Middle Ages, it is better-known for its university, the University of Coimbra, which is one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest academic institution in the...

, Portugal
  Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

, China
  Bamako
Bamako
Bamako is the capital of Mali and its largest city with a population of 1.8 million . Currently, it is estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa and sixth fastest in the world...

, Mali
  Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Canada
  Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, Italy
  Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...

, South Korea
  Mexico City, México   Funchal
Funchal
Funchal is the largest city, the municipal seat and the capital of Portugal's Autonomous Region of Madeira. The city has a population of 112,015 and has been the capital of Madeira for more than five centuries.-Etymology:...

, Portugal
  Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

, Israel
  Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, United States
  Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

, Portugal
  Amman
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...

, Jordan
  Asunción
Asunción
Asunción is the capital and largest city of Paraguay.The "Ciudad de Asunción" is an autonomous capital district not part of any department. The metropolitan area, called Gran Asunción, includes the cities of San Lorenzo, Fernando de la Mora, Lambaré, Luque, Mariano Roque Alonso, Ñemby, San...

, Paraguay
  Porto
Porto
Porto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...

, Portugal
  Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

, Syria
  Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...

, Uruguay
  Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

, Romania
  Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

, Japan
  Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...

, Peru
  Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...

, Romania
  Ningbo
Ningbo
Ningbo is a seaport city of northeastern Zhejiang province, Eastern China. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, the municipality has a population of 7,605,700 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 3,089,180 in the built up area made of 6 urban districts. It lies south of the Hangzhou Bay,...

, China
  Mendoza
Mendoza, Argentina
Mendoza is the capital city of Mendoza Province, in Argentina. It is located in the northern-central part of the province, in a region of foothills and high plains, on the eastern side of the Andes. As of the , Mendoza's population was 110,993...

, Argentina
  Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

, Spain
  Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...

, China
  Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...

, Spain
  New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...

, India
  Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain.The city's Cathedral is the destination today, as it has been throughout history, of the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James...

, Spain
  Naha
Naha, Okinawa
is the capital city of the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa.Naha is a coastal city located on the East China Sea coast of the southern part of Okinawa Island, the largest of the Ryukyu Islands...

, Japan


See also

  • ABCD Region
  • Large Cities Climate Leadership Group
    Large Cities Climate Leadership Group
    The Large Cities Climate Leadership Group, now officially known as the C40 is a group of cities working to reduce urban carbon emissions and to adapt to climate change. It believes it has an important role to play as cities contain around 50% of the world population, consume 75% of the world's...

  • Largest cities in the Americas
    Largest Cities in the Americas
    This is a list of the 50 largest cities in the Americas by population. Official definitions of cities are defined according to the concept of city proper, which is the territory within the city limits. The list ranks the world's urban municipal units according to population...

  • List of municipalities in the state of São Paulo by population
  • São Paulo Turismo S/A – Official Tourism Board of the City of São Paulo
  • OPENCities
    OPENCities
    OPENCities is a project initiated by British Council Spain, to help cities to become more open and competitive. OPENCities demonstrates how international populations contribute to cities long term economic success and advocates for openness as a way forward for cities willing to play an...


External links

Official websites

Other websites

News stories
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