Sao Paulo (City)

Introduction

São Paulo - Heavy Sky

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São Paulo is the capital of the state of Sao Paulo and Brazil's largest city with a population of over 10 million people. It is also the most populous city in South America and the southern hemisphere. Locals go by paulistanos and the stunning architecture, with many skyscrapers, can awe anyone.

São Paulo officially became a city in 1711 and the economy of the area grew fast. The city dealt with many economic changes during its life and continued to thrive, such as the dropping of coffee prices in the beginning of the 20th century. During the early 20th century, countless immigrants from Europe, the Middle East and Japan came to the city in order to find their riches. Today, São Paulo is considered the richest city in Brazil.

Neighbourhoods

The city is divided into 31 subprefeituras, also known as boroughs. Each of these subprefeituras are further divided into two or three districts. The main districts are:

• Se
• Historical Downtown
• Butanta

Sights and Activities

Sala São Paulo

Sala São Paulo is a beautiful concert hall located in Julio Prestes Station. The station was constructed between 1926 and 1938 and served as a train station for several decades. Then in the 1990s the grand hall of the train station was turned into the current day concert hall. In order to honor the original design of the station even the sand imported in the restoration effort was brought in from the original source when the building was built in 1926. Today the amazing concert hall has amazing acoustics and can seat 1498 people making it a great place to check out a classical symphony or opera.

Sao Paulo Museum of Art

The Sao Paulo Museum of Art houses a huge collection of Western art, as well as a large collection of Brazilian art and smaller collections of African and Asian arts and collections of Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek and Roman antiquities as well as Pre-Columbian artifacts. Since 1969 the museum is located on the present location on the Paulista Avenue. The building itself is considered to be one of best examples of Brazilian modern architecture. Amongst the highlights are piantings by Raphael, Botticelli, Monet, Renoir, van Gogh and Rembrandt.

Ibirapuera Park

Ibirapuera Park is an amazing park located in the city centre. The park is home to many stunning sights including The Obelisk, a lake and many museums.

• Grande Marquise is home to the modern art museum.
• Cicillo Matarazzo Pavilion is home to the Contemporary Art Museum.
• Manoel da Nóbrega Pavilion was the location of the city hall until 1992.
• Lucas Nogueira Garcez Pavilion is the home to the Air Force Museum and the Folklore Museum.
• Planetarium and Municipal Astrophysics School was the first planetarium built in the southern hemisphere and has a dome with a 20 metre diameter.
• Ibirapuera Auditorium is a modern building that is quite controversial because of its space age design.

Other Sights and Activities

• The Municipal Theater. Check out this old theater.
• School Yard (Páteo do Collégio) is the place where São Paulo was founded.
• Paulista Avenue (Avenida Paulista).
• Se Cathedral (Catedral da Sé).
• Copan Biulding (Edifício Copan).
• Luz Station (Estação da Luz).
• Municipal Market (Mercado Municipal).
• Ipiranga Museum (Museu do Ipiranga).
• Museum of the Portuguese Language is an interesting museum located in the Luz Station.

Events and Festivals

• Anima Mundi - An animation film festival held in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro every July since 1993.
• Formula One´s Brazilian Grand Prix. October 31st, November 1st and 2nd at Interlagos race track.
• São Paulo Art Biennial - Founded in 1951 by Ciccilio Matarazzo, one important Brazilian industrial of Italian background. Held at Ibirapuera Park since 1957 on a pavilion projected by Oscar Niemayer and Hélio Uchôa.
• São Paulo Fashion Week
• São Paulo Gay Pride Parade - One of the biggest parades in the world. More than 2 million people participates every year. It is an almost out seasoned carnival.
• São Paulo International Film Festival or "Mostra Internacional de Cinema de São Paulo" has been held since 1977, in October and November.
• São Silvestre International Race or Corrida Internacional de São Silvestre - Every December 31, Paulista Avenue is full of people to celebrate the new´s year eve running at the streets of São Paulo. Since 1924 until 1990, the athletes used to run at night.

Weather

Technically São Paulo is a humid subtropical climate. Temperatures rarely climb to 30 °C during the summer and frost is quite rare in the winter because of the urban heat island. Sometimes August will be unseasonably warm with 28 °C days that are very dry. This is known as the little summer.

Getting There

By Plane

Sao Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport (GRU) is the busiest airport in Brazil and located about 25 kilometres from the city centre. This airport is a major hub for South America making it possible to fly almost from any major city in South America and Brazil to and from here. The passenger traffic is split between two terminals and has over 260 check-in counters. Around 40 airlines from this airport serve dozens of cities in Brazil, and countries in South America and beyond. Some of the main international cities served are Buenos Aires, Mexico City, New York JFK, Amsterdam, Toronto, Beijing, Madrid, Paris, Miami, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Seoul, Lima, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Chicago, Lisbon and London.

To/from the airport

• Bus: There is a public bus that runs every 30 minutes and travels to the city center of Sao Paulo. Counters at the airport for this bus service can be found at the Arrivals area of both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. From the airport, there is also a shuttle bus that stops at many places as well as the main beaches in the area.
• Car/Taxi: Taxis are available at both terminals, or bookings prior to arrival can be made as well. A taxi from Sao Paulo airport can take up to 2 hours in peak hours, or as little as 45 minutes early in the morning or late evening. Car rental is available from the airport, although traffic in Sao Paulo is very bad and driving in the central city is not recommended. By car take either the Ayrton Senna highway or Presidente Dutra highway to the airport.

Congonhas-São Paulo Airport (CGH) only offers domestic flights with around 5 airlines serving several dozens of destinations throughout Brazil. Taxis are available outside of the airport, keep in mind that not all international credit cards work in Brazil so it's useful to have local currency to pay for your journey when you arrive. A taxi from Sao Paulo Congonhas airport will take around 40 minutes to most hotels in the downtown area.

By Train

• Luz Station is one of the main train stations in the city.

By Car/Taxi

Taxis are available outside of both airports, keep in mind that not all international credit cards work in Brazil so it's useful to have local currency to pay for your journey when you arrive. Keep in mind that Sao Paulo has very bad traffic and journey times can increase dramatically if travelling to or from the airport in peak hours.

• Argentina - Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Santa Fe
• Bolivia - Puerto Suarez
• Chile - Santiago
• Paraguay - Asuncion
• Uruguay - Montevideo, Punta del Este

By Boat

Getting Around

By Car

Due to constant traffic jams, driving at rush hour is not advisible.

By Public Transport

The city has 61.3 kilometres of underground and light rail systems. With 4 lines operating and 55 stations it is possible to get to many tourist locations in the city by the public metro. Check the Metrô - SP page for more information.

Municipal bus fare is R$ 2.30.

Taxi's in São Paulo are white.

By Foot

By Bike

Only a few places in the city have segregated cycle facilities.

Eat

Drink

Sleep

Work

Learn

• University of Sao Paulo

Keep Connected

Internet

Internet access can be found everywhere and is quite cheap.

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

Phones are not easy to find.

Post

Correios is the national postal service of Brazil. It is a government run postal service and overseen by the Brazilian Ministry of Communications. Post offices are generally open from Monday to Friday from 09:00am to 5:00pm, although post offices located in shopping malls have their own opening hours, usually from 10:00am to 10:00pm. There are no set opening hours at weekends and as post office owners can choose when to open and close. More and more post offices are open until 1:00pm on Saturdays though. You can check things at the nearest post office. Sending postcards, letters and parcels is a rather straightforward process and services are reliable, though not overly fast when sending post internationally, mostly taking about a week to the USA and Europe, and there is a track-and-trace service for this as well. Domestically, there are both next day as well as more expensive same day delivery options. Stamps are available at post offices, as well as some kiosks or other places where they sell postcards.

External Links

• Official Governmental Website of Sao Paulo
• Sao Paulo Tourism Office Website