São Paulo

Attractions São Paulo - Attractions region São Paulo

This is South America's biggest city with around 17 million people, many of Italian and Japanese descent.

It is also the 3^rd largest city in the world. São Paulo's industrial development and cultural diversity has created Brazil's largest, most cultured and educated middle class. In 1554, Jesuit priests founded a mission on a small hill, strategically close to the River Tietê. The mission developed into a small trading post and then, in the 17^th and early 18^th century, into a jumping-off point for Bandeirante expeditions traveling into the interior. By 1711 trade had developed sufficiently on the plateau for the market town of São Paulo to be incorporated as a city. The seeds of its future prosperity showed up just 12 years later with the arrival of the first coffee plants in Brazil. The climate and soil surrounding São Paulo turned out to be perfect for coffee.

With the arrival of the railway in 1867, large-scale cultivation exploded. São Paulo became one of the largest coffee exporters in the world.
When slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888, coffee growers set about looking for an alternate source of labor. São Paulo became one of the first cities in Brazil to encourage immigration. Italians and Japanese, and later eastern Europeans, Spanish, Portuguese and Germans made the trek to São Paulo. To this day São Paulo remains the most culturally diverse city in Brazil.

During the postwar era São Paulo transformed itself into the megalopolis we know today. Foreign investment by car companies such as Ford, GM, and Volkswagen transformed the city into South America's largest car manufacturer.
In the mid-1950s São Paulo surpassed Rio in population and kept growing. Unfortunately, little foresight and rudimentary planning were devoted to the growth of the city. So while wages are the highest in the country, São Paulo is also the most chaotic city in Brazil. Lacking beaches and mountains, Paulistas devote themselves entirely to urban pursuits. Their theater is the best in the country. Dining out is an almost religious observance. The music and nightlife never end. The city is southwest of Rio and you can fly from there in less than an hour or take a 6-hour bus ride.