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Santiago de Chile
KNOWLEDGE OF Santiago de Chile
Santiago (Spanish: Santiago de Chile) is Chile's capital and largest city. It is situated in the country's central valley, and administratively is a part of the Santiago Metropolitan Region. While Santiago is the capital, legislative bodies meet in nearby Valparaiso.
Santiago has a mild Mediterranean climate: relatively hot dry summers (November to March) with temperatures reaching up to 35 degrees Celsius on the hottest days; winters (June to August) are more humid, with typical maximum daily temperatures of 15 degrees Celsius, and minimums of a few degrees above freezing. Mean rainfall is 360 mm per year.
Thermal inversion (a meteorological phenomenon whereby a stable layer of warm air holds down colder air close to the ground) causes high levels of smog and air pollution to be trapped and concentrate within the Central Valley during winter months. The government has attempted to reduce pollution by giving incentives for heavy industry to move out of the valley but such measures have seen limited results.
The Mapocho river, which crosses the city from the north-east to the south-west of the Central Valley, is contaminated by industrial and household sewage, dumped unfiltered into the river, and by upstream copper-mining waste (there are a number of copper mines in the Andes east of Santiago). The central government recently passed a law that forces industry and local governments to process all their wastewater by 2006. There are now a number of large wastewater processing and recycling plants under construction.
Sound levels on the main streets are high, mostly because of noisy diesel buses. Diesel trucks and buses are also major contributors to winter smog.
The population of Santiago's urban agglomeration grew from 1.33 million in 1950 to 2.84 million in 1970 and 4.73 million in 1990. According to the 2002 census, it contains a population of about 5.8 million, equivalent to nearly 40% of the total population of the country, making it one of the largest cities in Latin America. The government has made great efforts to encourage people to resettle out of Santiago, to relieve the pressure on the city's infrastructure.
Santiago is the most important industrial and financial center of Chile. It generates 45 percent of the country's GDP. Also, the city is, along with Buenos Aires and São Paulo, one of the biggest financial centers of South America. Some international institutions, such as ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean), have their offices in Santiago. In recent years, due to the strong growth and stability of the Chilean economy, many multinational companies have chosen Santiago as the place for their headquarters in the region, like HP, Reuters, JP Morgan, Intel, Coca Cola, Unilever, Nestlé, Kodak, BHP Billiton, IBM, Motorola, Microsoft, Ford, Yahoo!, and many more.
Santiago's national and international airport is Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport and ranks high regionally in terms of quality. Trains connect Santiago to Puerto Montt, in the central-southern part of the country. All such trains arrive and depart from the Estación Central ("Central Station"). Private inter-urban bus companies provide excellent and cheap transportation from Santiago to virtually any part of the country. There are also several new inter-urban toll highways connecting the city's extremes.
Santiago's urban passenger transportation system include an extensive, if chaotic, privately-run bus service as well as a subway. The buses are known as micros (for microbus) and are typically colored yellow. This bus system is in the process of being completely replaced by late 2006 by a new system which includes new routes and larger, newer buses, with a better payment system, compatible with the subway. (See Transantiago.) The subway is clean and safe and has four operating lines but their coverage is still somewhat limited. The Government just inaugurated an additional subway line (Line 4), but it is still being expanded, and is building extensions to Lines 1 and 2. (See Santiago Metro).
Taxicabs can usually be found on the streets and are painted black with yellow roofs; unmarked taxis may be called up by telephone (Radiotaxis). Colectivos are shared taxicabs that carry passengers along a specific route, for a fixed fee.
Greater Santiago is a conurbation extending throughout 37 municipalities. The majority of Santiago lies within the same named province, with some peripheral areas contained in the provinces of Talagante, Maipo and Cordillera.
The province of Santiago is divided into 32 municipalities (comunas in Spanish). Each municipality in Chile is headed by a mayor (alcalde) elected by voters every four years. The members of the municipal council (concejales) are elected in the same election on a separate ballot. Some of the important municipalities are: Santiago Centro, Las Condes, Providencia, Maipú, La Florida and Ñuñoa.
Santiago has a mild Mediterranean climate: relatively hot dry summers (November to March) with temperatures reaching up to 35 degrees Celsius on the hottest days; winters (June to August) are more humid, with typical maximum daily temperatures of 15 degrees Celsius, and minimums of a few degrees above freezing. Mean rainfall is 360 mm per year.
Thermal inversion (a meteorological phenomenon whereby a stable layer of warm air holds down colder air close to the ground) causes high levels of smog and air pollution to be trapped and concentrate within the Central Valley during winter months. The government has attempted to reduce pollution by giving incentives for heavy industry to move out of the valley but such measures have seen limited results.
The Mapocho river, which crosses the city from the north-east to the south-west of the Central Valley, is contaminated by industrial and household sewage, dumped unfiltered into the river, and by upstream copper-mining waste (there are a number of copper mines in the Andes east of Santiago). The central government recently passed a law that forces industry and local governments to process all their wastewater by 2006. There are now a number of large wastewater processing and recycling plants under construction.
Sound levels on the main streets are high, mostly because of noisy diesel buses. Diesel trucks and buses are also major contributors to winter smog.
The population of Santiago's urban agglomeration grew from 1.33 million in 1950 to 2.84 million in 1970 and 4.73 million in 1990. According to the 2002 census, it contains a population of about 5.8 million, equivalent to nearly 40% of the total population of the country, making it one of the largest cities in Latin America. The government has made great efforts to encourage people to resettle out of Santiago, to relieve the pressure on the city's infrastructure.
Santiago is the most important industrial and financial center of Chile. It generates 45 percent of the country's GDP. Also, the city is, along with Buenos Aires and São Paulo, one of the biggest financial centers of South America. Some international institutions, such as ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean), have their offices in Santiago. In recent years, due to the strong growth and stability of the Chilean economy, many multinational companies have chosen Santiago as the place for their headquarters in the region, like HP, Reuters, JP Morgan, Intel, Coca Cola, Unilever, Nestlé, Kodak, BHP Billiton, IBM, Motorola, Microsoft, Ford, Yahoo!, and many more.
Santiago's national and international airport is Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport and ranks high regionally in terms of quality. Trains connect Santiago to Puerto Montt, in the central-southern part of the country. All such trains arrive and depart from the Estación Central ("Central Station"). Private inter-urban bus companies provide excellent and cheap transportation from Santiago to virtually any part of the country. There are also several new inter-urban toll highways connecting the city's extremes.
Santiago's urban passenger transportation system include an extensive, if chaotic, privately-run bus service as well as a subway. The buses are known as micros (for microbus) and are typically colored yellow. This bus system is in the process of being completely replaced by late 2006 by a new system which includes new routes and larger, newer buses, with a better payment system, compatible with the subway. (See Transantiago.) The subway is clean and safe and has four operating lines but their coverage is still somewhat limited. The Government just inaugurated an additional subway line (Line 4), but it is still being expanded, and is building extensions to Lines 1 and 2. (See Santiago Metro).
Taxicabs can usually be found on the streets and are painted black with yellow roofs; unmarked taxis may be called up by telephone (Radiotaxis). Colectivos are shared taxicabs that carry passengers along a specific route, for a fixed fee.
Greater Santiago is a conurbation extending throughout 37 municipalities. The majority of Santiago lies within the same named province, with some peripheral areas contained in the provinces of Talagante, Maipo and Cordillera.
The province of Santiago is divided into 32 municipalities (comunas in Spanish). Each municipality in Chile is headed by a mayor (alcalde) elected by voters every four years. The members of the municipal council (concejales) are elected in the same election on a separate ballot. Some of the important municipalities are: Santiago Centro, Las Condes, Providencia, Maipú, La Florida and Ñuñoa.
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