Guarulhos is a city in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2003 is 1,160,468, the density is 3,649.27/km² and the area is 318 km². This place name comes from the Tupi language. It is a suburb of São Paulo. Guarulhos is the 2nd largest city in São Paulo state and one of the biggest cities in Brazil.
The city is accessed by a major airport for São Paulo, the largest in South America, São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport (GRU). A traveler landing in the Guarulhos airport can take as few as 5 minutes or as long as 2 hours in immigration processing, and once claiming his/her bags he/she will be in São Paulo's downtown in 25-50 minutes, depending on the traffic.
Guarulhos was made the 8th place in the rank of Brazilian cities by GDP (2nd in São Paulo state) (source:IBGE, Brazil's national institute of statistics. GDP by cities report, published in 2005 with data from 2002).
Several small hotels offer accommodations near the airport.
Most international flights landing in Brazil go to Guarulhos airport (with a small fraction landing directly in Rio de Janeiro).
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