Rio de Janeiro (city) - geography.

« city’s architecture from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries stands in dramatic contrast with its ultramodern Petrobras building, headquarters of the state petroleumcompany, and the avant-garde Metropolitan Cathedral.

The city’s most famous landmarks are Pão de Açúcar (404 m/1,325 ft), which is situated on a peninsula jutting intoGuanabara Bay and is known as Sugar Loaf Mountain in English, and the massive (40 m/131 ft) Christ the Redeemer statue, which overlooks the city from the top ofCorcovado Mountain (704 m/2,310 ft) in the Serra da Carioca coastal range. V RECREATION Recreational activities abound in Rio.

Extensive sandy beaches along the Atlantic Ocean in the southern margins of the city are used heavily by both residents and tourists.Tijuca National Park is outside the urbanized area, atop the Serra da Carioca range, and contains remnants of the tropical rain forest that once covered the entire region.Urban parks include Quinta da Boa Vista Park (site of the National Museum, which focuses on natural history), the Botanical Gardens, Lage Park, and Flamengo Park.

Theseparks provide opportunities for a range of recreational activities—including hiking, climbing, hang gliding, jogging, walking, and cycling—for both residents and tourists.Maracanã Stadium, which holds more than 100,000 spectators, is located just outside Quinta da Boa Vista Park. Rio’s milestone social event and preeminent tourist attraction each year is Carnival, a major festival held in late February or early March, just prior to the beginning of theChristian season of Lent.

During the weeks that precede Carnival, the city receives thousands of tourists.

Events include spontaneous street dancing behind popular bandas (marching bands comprised of brass and percussion instruments), formal Carnival balls for nearly every income level, and several days of Sambadrome parades where thebest samba schools compete in marathon musical and dance presentations along a specially designed street where thousands of spectators gather to watch the eventunfold. VI ECONOMY Rio ranks second nationally in industrial production and is a major financial and service center.

The city’s industries produce processed foods, chemicals, petroleumproducts, pharmaceuticals, metal products, ships, textiles, clothing, and furniture.

The service sector dominates the economy, however, and includes banking and thesecond most active stock market in Brazil, the Bolsa da Valores do Brasil. Tourism and entertainment are other key aspects of the city’s economic life and the city is the nation’s top tourist attraction for both Brazilians and foreigners.

Revenue fromtourism began declining sharply in the late 1980s and early 1990s, due in part to a global recession and the Persian Gulf War (1991), but also because of political turmoiland rampant crime in the city.

The annual number of foreign travelers visiting Rio dropped from a high of 750,000 in 1988 to 425,000 in 1990.

Local authorities respondedby creating a special police unit in 1992 to patrol those areas most frequented by tourists, especially the Copacabana neighborhood—home to many of the city’s hotels,tourist facilities, and attractive beaches. Rio is well connected to the rest of Brazil by land, sea, and air.

It is linked to all key points in the nation by an extensive highway system.

Most freight moves by truck and awide range of buses provide direct service to all major Brazilian cities.

Two airports serve the city: Santos Dumont Airport, a downtown facility for local shuttle flightsbetween Rio and São Paulo, and Galeão Airport, a major national and international airport located on Governor’s Island in Guanabara Bay.

The volume of cargo movedthrough Rio’s port ranks second in the nation.

Only the port of Santos, which serves as the port for São Paulo, exceeds its volume. VII GOVERNMENT Rio’s metropolitan region includes the 14 independent municipal governments which make up the urban area.

Municipalities are the foundation of democratic government inBrazil, as laid out in the 1988 constitution.

They are governed by elected mayors and municipal councils and have responsibility for primary education, basic health services,solid-waste collection and disposal, and municipal upkeep, including streets and parks.

Municipal funding sources include taxes on property and services, as well as revenuefrom state and federal sources. There is no metropolitan planning or development authority, although in the 1980s the state-instituted Metropolitan Development Foundation attempted to fulfill such a role.It has since been disbanded. VIII CONTEMPORARY ISSUES Although Rio may be Brazil’s most beautiful city, it is also one of its most troubled.

The favelas which blanket the slopes of surrounding hillsides house approximately 20percent of the city’s residents and are often dangerous, unsanitary, and lacking in basic services such as water, sewerage, and, to a lesser extent, electricity.

Many of thecity’s poor have no jobs, no access to schools, and only limited access to medical care.

However, literacy rates for Rio are high, nearly 90 percent, and a system of publichospitals and clinics provides at least some medical care to the city’s poorest residents.

Police corruption is widespread.

Environmental pollution is a problem throughout themetropolitan region, and the waters of Guanabara Bay are considered too polluted for safe bathing. Rio experienced serious crime problems in the early 1990s, when powerful criminal gangs took over entire favela neighborhoods.

The murders of homeless children in 1993by corrupt police officers acting on behalf of commercial interests drew international attention to Rio’s social and criminal problems.

With a murder rate of 61 per 100,000people in 1994, Rio was one of the world’s most violent cities.

This was more than twice the rate of 28 per 100,000 for São Paulo. IX HISTORY Portuguese explorers arrived at Guanabara Bay in 1502 and in 1555 French colonists established a Calvinist settlement.

Native Americans from the Tupí family occupied thearea at the time of European contact.

The French were expelled in 1567 by the Portuguese, who maintained a small colony based on subsistence agriculture, fishing, andthe export of brazilwood and sugarcane until the beginning of the 18th century.

In 1704 the completion of a road from Rio to the gold mines of Minas Gerais made the city amajor center of transportation, commerce, and wealth.

Rio was captured by the French in 1710 and the Portuguese paid a substantial ransom for its return.

The city’sfortunes rose in 1763 when the capital of colonial Brazil was moved to Rio from Salvador, a port city in northeastern Brazil known at the time as Bahia.

After NapoleonBonaparte’s armies captured Lisbon, Portugal, in 1808, Rio became the seat of Portugal’s exiled royal family.

In the decade that followed, the city grew dramatically andtook on a decidedly European flavor.

In 1822 it became the capital of the independent Brazilian Empire.

With the overthrow of the monarchy in 1889, Rio was made thecapital of the Brazilian republic.

Beginning in the late 1800s and continuing well into the middle of the 1900s, coffee cultivation expanded widely in the mountainous terrainsurrounding Rio, fueling a commercial boom that enriched the city and its residents.

By 1900 Rio’s population had grown to about 800,000. The global economic depression of the 1930s and World War II (1939-1945) drastically reduced the flow of manufactured goods into Brazil, encouraging the development ofnational industries; many of these were based in Rio.

After World War II, Rio prospered from increasing commerce and international trade.

During this period Rio attractedlarge numbers of migrants who came from small towns and rural areas of Brazil seeking jobs and better living conditions.

In 1960 the capital of the nation was transferredto Brasília, deep in the country’s interior.

This marked a dramatic change for Rio, resulting in a loss of political status and prestige.

In addition, large amounts of federalaid—as well as related investment and jobs—were shifted to the new capital, undermining Rio’s economic dominance.

Nevertheless, the city’s population continued tomushroom until the 1980s, when growth tapered off. Contributed By:. »