Mexico City

While looking for inspiration, I came across some interesting Mexico City facts that I wanted to share on my blog.

1. Bosque de Chapultepec is the biggest city park in America.It has an area of 1,695 acres making it twice the size of Central Park, which is 840 acres.

2. Mexico City is the America’s oldest city. It was founded in 1325, which makes it over 700 years old.

3. Castillo de Chapultepec is the only Royal Castle in America. The castle was built in 1788 as the Spanish Viceroy’s summer house and then later used by Emperor Maximilian I and his wife Empress Carlota in 1864.

4. Many Hollywood movies were filmed in the city. The most famous of all was Romeo + Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, some of the locations for the film were Castillo de Chapultepec as the Capulet Mansion and the Parish of the Most Pure Heart of Mary as Saint Peter’s Church. Other more recent blockbusters include James Bond’s Spectre and Elysium.

5. It’s the 2nd most populated city in Latin America and 7th in the world. It has 21.4 million people placing it after cities like Tokyo (38.3M), Delhi (27.9M), Shanghai (25.8M), Beijing (22.8M), Mumbai (22M) and Sao Paolo (21.7M).

6. It will be the 8th richest city in the world by 2020. With an estimated GDP of $608 billion dollars it will reach #8 and be placed after Tokyo ($1,602B), New York ($1,561B), Los Angeles ($886B), London ($708B), Chicago ($645B), and Paris ($611B).

7. The subway system is the 2nd largest in America and the 9th most used in the world. Only topped by the New York City Subway. The Mexico City Metro has 12 lines, 195 stations, covers over 140 miles and it’s used by 5.5M people per day.

8. The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) is one of the biggest in the world & it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Within its 30.2M sq. foot of constructed area, you’ll find several murals made by famous Mexican artists like Diego Rivera. The University has over 300,000 students and has an acceptance rate of only 8%.

9. La Alameda Central was the 1st urban park in America. It was built in 1592 and it’s adjacent to the Palace of Fine Arts.

10. Between 10 to 13 million people visit Mexico City per year. Over 20% of those are international tourists. Mexico as of 2016 is the 9th most visited country in the world with approximately 35M international per year.