Being the second most populous non-capital city in Brazil – behind Campinas – São José dos Campos lies in the middle of the Expanded Metropolitan Complex ("Complexo Metropolitano Expandido"), the first megalopolis in the Southern Hemisphere, with over thirty million inhabitants.

São José dos Campos also holds relevant education and research institutions, as ITA, INPE, CEMADEN, IEAv, IEA [pt], IFI [pt], UNESP, UNIFESP, DCTA, FATEC, UNIVAP and IP%D, holding a position the puts the city as the main and largest Aerospacial Complex in Latin America.

The Technological Park ("Parque Tecnológico de São José dos Campos"), the largest one in the country, is the only research institute in the world that converges all the three top global plane production companies, Embraer, Boeing and Airbus.

However, for administrative purposes, the city is composed of 7 urban regions: Center, North, South, West, East, Southeast and São Francisco Xavier.

Due to the high topographic differences among neighborhoods and the urbanization, the city now experiences micro-climates present in distant areas.

The downtown tends to concentrate frequent urban heat islands, while the suburb areas get noticeably colder main temperatures.

The origins of São José dos Campos lie at the end of the 16th Century when Jesuits founded a cattle farm, Aldeia do Rio Comprido.

The farm was located on the banks of the Rio Comprido, natural division between São José and the city of Jacareí today.

The farm status was an artifice to hide a religious outpost, one of the several Jesuit Reductions in Brazil, known for their resistance to enslavement, from the Portuguese expedition leaders and indigenous people hunters, known as the Bandeirantes.

It was about 15 km (9.3 mi) northeast of the previous mission, on a higher plain with a privileged view above a geological depression, which guaranteed security against invasions and floods.

The initial urbanization plan is attributed to the Jesuit priest Manoel de Leão, whose main occupation was really to be an administrator of the community.

The governor, D. Luis Antonio Botelho Mourão, had as a priority to turn these new assets into productive units and increase tax collection.

For that, Boutelho Mourão successfully requested authorization from the Viceroy to create civil parishes, known as freguesias, and to change the fiscal status of villages to the category of Vila (town).

In the middle of the 19th century, the village of São José do Paraíba had demonstrated some signs of economic growth through the development of agriculture.

In the same year, on April 22, the town became the seat of a municipality, acquiring finally, in 1871, the current name of São José dos Campos, followed by the creation of a judiciary district in 1872.

The call for the municipality of São José dos Campos for the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis by sanatoriums became noticed at the beginning of last century, due to its supposedly favorable climate conditions.

The country's then-largest hospital, the Vicentina Aranha Sanitarium, was opened in town in 1924, and in 1935 the municipality was officially recognized as a health retreat.

With the advent of antibiotics in the 1940s, tuberculosis begins to be treated anywhere, thus ending the healthcare advantage carried out by São José, whereas the establishment of industries was about just to start.

A list of notable sites: Although São José is an industrial center, the city still preserves green areas and quiet town districts.

[citation needed] On the outskirts of the urban area, Augusto Ruschi Ecology Reserve has many local plant species.

Tenis Clube and Associação Esportiva São José have hosted the 35th Banana Bowl International Tennis Federation Juniors Circuit in 2005 and 2006.

Operated by three companies (Expresso Maringa, Julio Simões and Viação Capital do Vale), these lines serve nearly all areas in the city with 319 buses.

Infraero and the Federal Revenue Agency are also introducing a new concept called airport-industry, that will offer fiscal incentives and fast importation and exportation procedures.

[12] The company is currently an operator of cell phones, fixed lines, internet (fiber optics/4G) and television (satellite and cable).

[citation needed] The municipality cultivates different crops: rice, tomato, potatoes, orange and many vegetables; cattle are raised for beef and milk supply.

[citation needed] In contrast to the rural town in 1950s, today São José is an important manufacturing center and holds a large array of industries.

For instance, the Entrepreneurial District of Chacaras Reunidas concentrates companies of micro, small and medium size, which are mainly the result of downsizing from old large local industries.