São Paulo

São Paulo is gigantic. With nearly 19 million inhabitants, São Paulo is de largest city of Brazil and one of the largest cities of the world. It is the financial and economic heart of South America. This metropolis has been built by immigrants and has many different ethnic groups: São Paulo hosts the largest Japanese community outside Japan, the largest Spanish community outside Spain and the largest Italian community outside Italy. As a result of this, São Paulo has an unique mix of religions, cuisines and rituals.

History
The city of São Paulo was founded by the Portuguese Jesuit José de Anchieta on January 25th, 1554. He constructed some houses and a building that was used both as a school and as a church. During the first centuries, the settlement grew at a very slow rate. It was only at the end of the nineteenth century that São Paulo began to boom when the foreign demand for coffee rose considerably. Coffee grew well in the surroundings of São Paulo. As slavery had just been abolished, large amounts of poor Europeans settled in Brazil to work at the coffee plantations. Especially Italians, Japanese, Germans and Lebanese immigrants settled in the surroundings of São Paulo.

To date, São Paulo and its suburbs have more than 19 million inhabitants. Because São Paulo is a relatively young city it consists mainly of modern buildings.

Region
The city of São Paulo is capital of the State of São Paulo. This is the most populous Brazilian state. It has more than 40 million inhabitants and it is responsible for nearly 40% of the Brazilian industrial production.

The term ABCD Paulista refers to an industrialised agglomeration of 7 cities in the State of São Paulo. It is the abbreviation of the four most important cities in this agglomeration: Santo André (A), São Bernardo do Campo (B), São Caetano do Sul (C) and Diadema (D). The other 3 cities of the ABCD Paulista are Mauá ; Ribeirão Pires and Rio Grande da Serra. In addition to the city of São Paulo and the ABCD, there are five more large cities in the State of São Paulo: Americana, Campinas, Guarulhos, Ribeirão Preto, and Santos.

City
Mercado Municipal
This market building was built in 1928 and it has a typical neoclassic style. The building is known for its enormous stained glass windows that depict Brazil’s country life. The market is used and a large variety of food can be bought here.

Time: Mondays-Saturdays: 06:00h - 18:00h, Sundays: 06:00h - 16:00h
Address: Rua da Cantareira, 306

Liberdade
Liberdade is the Japanese district of São Paulo. This neighbourhood houses the largest Japanese community outside Japan. The streets are lightened by typical oriental lanterns and the shops advertise in Japanese. It is a perfect place to enjoy the Japanese cuisine. Every Sunday afternoon, there is an oriental market near the Liberdade metro station.

Bela Vista
Bela Vista is São Paulo’s Japanese neighbourhood. It is unofficially called Bixiga. This neigbourhood is known fort its Italian restaurants. Some Italian holidays are still celebrated in this part of town.

Musea
Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP)
The São Paulo Art Museum (MASP) has a unique collection of paintings and sculptures ranging from the antiquity till Brazilian modern art.

Open: Tuesdays - Sundays: 11:00 h - 18:00 h (no tickets are sold after 17.00 h)

Address: Av. Paulista, 1578

Phone: (55) (11) 3251-5644

Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC USP)
The Museum for Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo (MAC USP) has an extensive collection of paintings, drawings, engravings and sculptures.

Open: Tuesdays - Fridays 10.00 h – 18.00 h. Weekends and holidays: 10.00h - 16.00 h. Closed on Mondays.
Address: Rua da Reitoria, 160 - Cidade Universitária

Phone: (55) (11) 3091 3039

Getting there
Plane
The two important airports of São Paulo are Guarulhos (GRU) and Congonhas (CGH). Guarulhos is situated at a distance of 40 km (25 miles) from the centre. This is the airport used for most international flights and some domestic flights. A shuttle service connects this airport with the city centre (Praça da Republica) and to Congonhas Airport. Congonhas is mainly used for domestic flights. It is located at a distance of 15 km to the centre.

Campo de Marte is a small airport near the Centre. It is mainly used for helicopters and small airplanes.

Bus
São Paulo can be reached by bus from nearly all Brazilian cities. The two most important terminals are called Rodoviaria Tietê (Avenida Cruzeiro do Sul, 1800 in the neighbourhood Vila Guilherme). This is one of the largest bus terminals in the world. It can be reached by subway, its subwaystation is Estação Tietê (do Metrô) .
The other bus terminal is called Rodoviaria Barra Fundo . It is in the neighbourhood Barra Fundo and this terminal too is connected to the subway system. It’s subway station is called Estação Barra Funda (do Metrô) .

Get around
Subway
São Paulo has an excellent subway, its only disadvantage is that there are only three lines. Many people combine the subway system with the taxi system.

Taxi’s
Taxi’s are cheaper in São Paulo than in the US or Europe. However, São Paulo is very large and there are many traffic jams. A fast way to move through the city is taking a taxi to the nearest subway station, take the subway and take another taxi to get to your destination.