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About Sao Paulo:

The city of São Paulo is full of surprises. There was a time when it was just considered a rainy city full of work and concrete.
São Paulo, the capital, has indeed a rainy season, but just in the first three months of the year. It is the right place to work, run helter-skelter, and have busy days. Its concrete is attractive and can be seen in monumental buildings, shopping centers and residential neighborhoods. However, there is more to São Paulo than just that. Its parks are real oasis amid the commotion of the big city. Its monuments are historic sites that not only tell the history of the state, but the history of Brazil, and are visited by Brazilians and foreigners. Gastronomic sites offer choices for all tastes and pocket in a great variety of places.

There are also seven large stadiums and the Interlagos Racetrack, host to the Formula 1 Grand Prix, the only circuit venue in the whole Latin America.

Culture is also synonymous with paulistano São Paulo: 272 cinemas screens, 102 theaters, 11 cultural centers and 70 museums, as well as scores of historic buildings, inspire all those who walk around the city.

One tour around São Paulo capital will give a full insight into São Paulo's and Brazil's history. The historic sites, extremely well preserved, include museums, churches, picture galleries, bridges and squares. The city's historic center, which is being restored at present, deserves a visit because of its magnificence.

Some important points in the city:

Praca da Se: 
In the middle of the square it is situated the Marco Zero, that indicates the directions of the bordery states of São Paulo and from which is counted the distance from any other point of the city. In the square is situated the Catedral Metropolitana da Sé (Sé Cathedral). With a modified gothic style, its construction started in 1913 and only finished 4 decades later. It is the biggest church in São Paulo, with 11m high, 46m wide, 92m high towers, 30m high dome and capacity for 8 thousand people. In its crypt, that can be considered a truth underground church, artistic works of the sculpture Francisco Leopoldo.

Viaduto do Cha:
It was the first viaduct of São Paulo. It has its name (Tea Viaduct) because it was situated near a great Indian tea crop. With metal structure, from Germany, the viaduct was inagurated during a great party in 1892. It linked Rua Direita(Old Center) to Rua do Chá, present Rua Barão de Itapetininga (New Center). In 1938 the old viaduct with wooden ground was demolished, getting a concrete floor twice as much of width. During many years the Viaduto do Chá was the main postcard sight of the city.

Edificio Italia:
It was constructed in 1956 and it was for a long time the highest building of the city. Its name is a homenage to the Italian citizens that helped to build the city. In th 45th floor is situated the famous restaurant Terraço Itália, where one of the most beautiful views can be appreciated. It is on the corner of Av Ipiranga and Av São Luís.

Instituto Butantan:
The public that visits the Butantan institution, besides knowing its serpentarium, can take advantage of the park with its rare trees and big (lanes). In the institute there are two museums: Butantan Museum Institute (MIB) and the Historic Museum. There are more than 60 species of Brazilian serpents and others brought from the four continents, as well as the spiders and scorpions. The most interesting ones are in the museum. There are hooded cobras from Africa and India, boas and South American Anacondas. The public can also find a multimedia station about the Brazilian serpents. Besides the serum against stings of snakes, spiders and scorpions, the Butantan also produces vaccines against tetanus, whooping cough, dipheteria, rabies and tuberculosis. Researches on the geographic distribution, the biology and systematic of serpents, spiders and scorpions and its respective toxins are also carried out. The Hospital Vital Brasil, which is in operation in the Butantan Institute, is open night and day. The treatment is free to any person who's been stung by venomous animals.

Parqu do Ibirapuera:
It has an area of 17,222 million of square feet and in its interior we can find many important public buildings, several museums, the planetarium, Japanese Pavilion, with its typical gardens and lakes. In the free area, there are running tracks, courts, bike tracks and a big plant nursery. In the park one can find the Bienal Building, the Planetarium , the gymnasium, Creche Museum, Aeronautic and Folklore Museums, the Obelisk to the heroes of 32 and the Bandeiras monument (explorer's monument). It is considered one of the most important green areas of the city, Ibirapuera Park was inaugurated with the celebrations for the IV Centenarium of the city in 1954.

Teatro Municipal:
Inaugurated on September 12th, 1911 with the opera "Hamlet" of Ambrósio Thomas, it was the beginning of a new stage of the cultural life in São Paulo. Its construction under the office of Francisco Ramos de Azevedo, had the collaboration of the Italian architects Cláudio Rossi and Domiziano Rossi. The team, which during 9 consecutive years dedicated themselves to the project and to the work management, established contact to all the companies of the world, bringing to São Paulo an unlimited number of decorative elements. These elements can still be seen in the architecture of the theatre.

Some of the performances of the century were by Caruso, Calllas, Ruffo, Shifa, Bidu Saião, Olenewa. Nijinski, Toscanini, Alonso, Pavlowa, Rubisntein, Gigli, Guiomar Novaes, Duncan, Tagliaferro, Fonteyn, and also the people that had organized in 1922 the Modern Art Week. In 1951, the theatre suffered radical modernization, coordinated by the architect Tito Raucht. New floors were created in the area of the dressing rooms, amplifying its capacity of accommodation. In the room of spectacles the dressing rooms were suppressed, of which only 11 were kept. The entire remaining area was transformed into balconies.

The countryside:
In the countryside, there are 644 municipalities including the São Paulo Metropolitan Area. A vast land that is formed by a people with habits, traditions, and a special way of living. With warmth and simplicity, the inhabitants of São Paulo live with their doors open to welcome visitors. The land in São Paulo's countryside produces all that is planted in it, from agriculture to industry, science, and technology. It is a region that runs towards modern life. The countryside is full of forests, tracks, waterfalls, cascades, and rivers that cut through the state, and there are also beaches that margin the shore of the state with its white plains, bubbling waves and its hometown people. It is also full of festivities, music, dance and shows.

Beaches:
Bordered by the blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the beaches of São Paulo are a special treat. São Paulo was born in São Vicente beach, in the South coast. Right next to it, Santos and Guarujá are large and developed municipalities. Further to the South, the beaches are Praia Grande, Mongaguá, Itanhaém, Peruíbe and Ilha Comprida. To the North, Bertioga, Ubatuba, Caraguatatuba, Ilha Bela. Those are beaches with rare beauty and some still have few inhabitants. Real preserved refuges, with the Atlantic Forest bordering such retreats, which offer white sand, calm waters, a lot of room under the sun as well as hospitable people.

Santos is a city of great economic importance to the country, because it has the biggest harbor of Brazil. It is one of the seashore cities of greater development and urban infrastructure. In Santos, it is possible to visit the Museu da Pesca---_(Fishing Museum), Aquário Municipal_ (Municipal Aquarium), Museu do Café_ (Coffee Museum) and Fortaleza da Barra Grande_ (Barra Grande Fort). www.santos.sp.gov.br

Guarujá city, however, became one of the most sophisticated beaches. The main beaches are Astúrias and Pitangueiras. The Tombo beach has strong waves and can be dangerous to the tourists but the surfers love it. Get to know the Guarujá by clicking here: www.guaruja.sp.gov.br

The tourist cannot miss going to Praia Grande. The name comes from the indian "Peacabu". Emancipated from São Vicente in 1967, Praia Grande is today a national reference in tourism. Its famous summer colonies are all booked in the summer season, giving the city a special brightness. That's why it is so common for the people who live in other cities to keep their summerhouses in Praia Grande, a city that welcomes the tourist like no other.

Art Craft:
The State of São Paulo developed a typical and peculiar art craft, produced basically with raw material from the rainforest. It was achieved by mixing techniques brought by the European colonizer with others developed by the indians and black people, and enriching the curious cultural contribution of different populations of migrants and immigrants. The intense industrialization has given place to a new kind of art craft, the urban art craft, in which the industrial residues are recycled by the hand of art craftsmen, turning them into objects. Even though, some regions keep their traditional art craft, as in Apiaí, in Vale do Ribeira, with its rustic ceramics, and in Vale do Paraíba, with the high-temperature ceramics. In the seaside, the art craft of indian origin predominates, produced by a few guaranis (indians) left, among which, the basket making, made with types of bamboos, vipe and with husk is the most famous activity. The guaranis have the art craft as a part of their culture and tradition. Although the basket making is the most commercialized industry, they also make indian instruments of percussion, bow and arrow, among other manual works. It is estimated that today there are about 8 thousand art craftsmen in São Paulo, involving about 40 thousand people in the art crafting production. Other manifestations of art crafting in São Paulo can be found in weekly markets, such as the ones in Praça da República and the one in Liberdade neighborhood and also in the city of Embu. The government of São Paulo, worried about developing and preserving this kind of art, created the Sutaco - Superintêndencia do Trabalho Artesanal das Comunidades. (Art craft Association) Its main contest is to study the problems related to the absorption of labor, as well as orient, execute and supervise the policy of marginalized labor. The Sutaco also establishes pacts and agreements with university sites to the carrying out of courses and studies and guide the policy of commercialization of products of the regions, emphasizing on exportation.

Gastronomy
There are more than one thousand restaurants, only in the city of São Paulo, serving typical food from all the regions of Brazil and from the countries all over the world, satisfying from the simplest to the most refined taste. If you want afrodisiac food, you'll find it. There is also Chinese, Vietnamese, Scandinavian, Japanese, Moroccan, Arabian, Jewish, absolutely everything is found at any time during the day or night. However, before that, if the tourist wants to feel and taste more exotic foods all you have to do is go to Mercado Municipal De São Paulo. The "Mercadão" as it is known is in one of the most meaningful buildings of the architecture from the period of the coffee crop in the State. It was inaugurated in 1933 and projected by F. Ranziini and E. Debenedetti, Italian architects from the technical office of Ramos de Azevedo. Situated in a 239.280 square-feet area, was the most important market of São Paulo. It is important for the windows that portrait the crops and cattle activities. Another interesting place to find everything related to fruit and vegetables is the Companhia de Entrepostos e Armazéns Gerais de São Paulo (CEAGESP) - the biggest warehouse in the country. However, if the tourist doesn't want to have fun in the kitchen, São Paulo offers many options to all kinds of tastes.

Who Built Sao Paulo:
The poverty of the colonial times would never take to imagine the puissance and dynamism, economic, social and cultural, that are characteristics of São Paulo. Who built all this richness?

First, what could be called the "bandeirante soul" of São Paulo. What is surprising from the first colonial times is that, in an inhospitable territory, a small population of Portuguese colonists intensively mixed with native indian populations and, later on, with african slaves - to form this world of "mamelucos", " cafuzos" and "mulatos" of the captaincy and, later on colonial province - were able, moved by the pleasure of adventure and ambition, to sustain a big and daring undertaking like the organization of the "bandeiras" (flags), that would result in the redefinition of the national territory in its current borders. It is that population "cabocla" essentially "mestiça" (crossbred), that maintained during three centuries the traditional culture of São Paulo, the "caipira" (countryside people) culture still found in the inland of the State.

But, it is not true seeing in that culture a form of retrogression. Made up of loyalty mixed with a quiet and foxy slyness, this is a culture of men and women that always knew how to take advantage of the circumstances as instrument of their own survival, in the conditions of proverbial penury that always were, until the XIX century, those of the São Paulo province. It is in that traditional culture that comes to participate, in the second half of the century, the immigration, giving to the São Paulo way of living their insuperable dynamism. What is the basis of the cultural mix of the São Paulo people? The correct answer is: the World! After all, at the beginning of the immigration, men and women of more than 60 countries established themselves in São Paulo, looking for opportunities. They were welcome here because the São Paulo province was in need of labour people for the coffee agriculture, and, today, it is regarded São Paulo to be the third largest Italian city of the world, the largest japanese city outside Japan, the third largest Lebanese city outside Lebanon, the largest Portuguese city outside Portugal and the largest Spanish city outside Spain.

The mix of races, ethnias and cultures increased with time and had a deep influence in the cultural, social and economic life of the city. The end of the XIX century and beginning of the XX century was a period of world-wide changes. Wars and revolutions brought unemployment and hunger in Europe. Entire populations ran away from their homeland looking for shelter to the ethnic, political and religious persecutions. Informations of a new land full of opportunities were received overseas. There were therefore other people besides the Portuguese, here present since the discovery, and the black africans, forced to cross the Atlantic as slaves, to be attracted for the colonization of Brazil. With a careful migratory policy, the Brazilian Monarchy attracted immigrants offering them lands to establish themselves as small agriculture owners. With the slavery abolition in 1888, the alternative was the mass immigration to replace the slave work.

The immigrants were embarked in the ship third class and came installed in the steamer cellars, where the overcrowding and poor conditions favoured the spreading of diseases, in a way not so far from those of the old black slavery ships. The difference was that now, no slaves were being transported to Brazil. Many immigrants died during the journey. From Europe to the port of Santos, the trip used to take around 30 days. The government, supporting the importation of labour,offered infrastructure, as temporary lodging. As from 1887, almost 3 million people went through the "Hospedaria do Imigrante" (Immigrant Hostel) www.memorialdoimigrante.sp.gov.br, in São Paulo.

The hostel had dormitories, dining hall, nursery, infirmary and hospital. It also included the Official Agency of Colonization and Work, responsible for the guideness of the families to the crops in the interior. From 1930 the hostel also started to take care of the internal migration movement. Workers from other states of Brazil were attended. Today, the hostel holds the Museu da imigração (the Immigration Museum) that rebuilds the saga of the immigrants and renders a homage to those anonimous heroes that helped to build the state of São Paulo. At the turning of the century the immigrant constituted most of the labor class of São Paulo. In 1901 the state had about 50 thousand industrial workers. Less than 10% were Brazilians. The absolute majority were Italians, followed by Portuguese, Spanish, Germans and Polish, among others. Each immigrant had a good reason to come to such an unknown land but full of hope.