Jam-packed

The district of Binondo is Manila's Chinatown. It is a densely populated area, with more than twelve thousand people crammed into its .66 square kilometer (.26 square mile) land, according to the 2007 Philippine population census. Despite its narrow, crowded and oft-dirty streets, Binondo has one of the highest land values in the metro. No houses here, just cheek by jowl office and apartment buildings which are all at least three stories high. No matter what the building is, the street level spaces are all eateries, retail stores and commercial enterprises.




About the only thing that distinguishes an office building from an apartment building in Binondo is the laundry drying in the balconies of the latter.

Friends forever

Welcome to Binondo, Manila's Chinatown. When the Spaniards founded Manila in 1571, they kept the Chinese immigrants outside the walled city of Intramuros. Those who converted to Christianity were given a parcel of land across the Pasig River in 1596 and allowed to govern themselves and it was called Binondo—from binundok, which means mountains or boondocks. Those who did not convert were kept within range of the fortress city's cannons. Before WWII, Binondo was Manila's center of business and finance. Many banks and financial institutions moved to Makati after the war, but even until now, Binondo remains an important center of trade for Chinese merchants. (Please pardon the dirty windshield!)

Purple Engine

Parked on a street at one side of the Binondo Church was this purple fire truck of the Fil-Chinese Paco Volunteer Search & Rescue Brigade which serves the Paco and Binondo areas of the City of Manila. It is a member of the Association of Philippine Volunteer Fire Brigades, Inc., which has twenty members from Metro Manila and another seventeen from the rest of the Philippines. The Purple Engine is a gift of the owner of Eng Bee Tin, which has been producing traditional Chinese delicacies like hopia and tikoy since Mr. Chua Chiu Hong (b. 1912) set up his first stall in Binondo. To survive stiff competition in the 1980s, the company had to learn how to innovate its products. The first, and still the most popular, of its new products was the ube (purple yam) hopia, hence the color of its donated fire trucks.

Chinoy church

Soon after the Spaniards settled the Chinese who converted to Christianity in Binondo in 1596, the Dominicans built a church for them. This was destroyed by a British bombardment in 1762 during their brief occupation of Manila. In 1852, a new Binondo Church was built on the same site with an octagonal bell tower which echoes Chinese architecture and design. The church was severely damaged during WWII but the facade and bell tower survived. The rebuilding and reconstruction of the church was done in several phases and took a long time, from 1946 to 1984. Binondo Church, dedicated to Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, is also known as the Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz, named after the Philippines' first saint, who was born of a Chinese father and a Tagalog mother. He served as an altar boy in the original church and was tortured and killed in Japan in 1637 for refusing to renounce his faith. He was canonized in 1987.

Spanish Dramatist or Filipino Saint

This ornate white fountain stands in Plaza Calderón de la Barca in front of the Binondo Church in Manila's Chinatown. The plaza is named after Pedro Calderón de la Barca, a Spanish dramatist of the 17th century whose play La vida es sueño (Life is a Dream) continues to be reinterpreted and staged until today. This tiny space is also known as Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz, after the first Filipino saint who happens to be from Binondo.

Natural or man-made, take a refreshing dip in Watery Wednesday.

Hidden in plain sight

Because of the district's hustle and bustle, and the inadequacy of Philippine rules about building signs, it is easy to miss the pre-war architectural gems of Binondo, Manila's Chinatown. The Uy-Chaco Building, which houses the Binondo branch of Philtrust Bank, stands right behind the Filipino-Chinese Friendship Arch. I've featured the arch in the past, but it wasn't until several years later—and a relatively long wait for the people I was meeting with—that I noticed the building. Information about it on the web is contradictory; it was either built in 1914 and designed by Samuel C. Rowell or built in 1930 and designed by Andres Luna de San Pedro.

First Filipino Saint

Lorenzo Ruiz (c. 1600–1637) was a Chinese Filipino layman with two sons and a daughter who lived in Binondo, Manila's Chinatown. Falsely accused of killing a Spaniard, he was granted asylum on a ship with three Dominican priests. When the ship landed in Japan, the group was arrested for their Christian faith and tortured. Lorenzo refused to recant his faith and was finally subjected to the horrendous form of torture called tsurushi. After two days hanging upside down in an enclosed pit, he died from bleeding and suffocation. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II during his visit to Manila in 1981 and canonized in 1987. This statue of him stands in the small Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz in front of the Binondo Church, which is formally titled the Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz.

Mind the gap

Not all of the kalesas remaining in Metro Manila are for tourist use only. Some districts of the City of Manila still allow them as public transportation, most notably in Binondo, Manila's Chinatown. In fact, one must take care when walking in its streets—look where you're stepping!




Unfortunately, just like our people, the horses also suffer terribly from the effects of poverty.

More Filipino than…

Roman Ongpin (1847–1912) was a Chinese-Filipino businessman, nationalist, civic leader, patron of the arts and philanthropist. He was born in Binondo, Manila's Chinatown, of immigrant parents. He secretly supported the Philippine Revolution against the Spanish colonial government and, when the Philippine-American War broke out, Ongpin again secretly supported the revolutionaries against the U.S. But the Americans found out and he was imprisoned from 1900–1901. Binondo's most famous street—the one with the funny street sign—is named after him.




CDP bloggers! There are only three days left to vote for the August theme and to prepare your photo for the July 1 theme day: Reflections. Why do I have the feeling that James was the inspiration for this one?

Narrow opening

THEME DAY: OPEN AIR MARKET • Alright, I'm cheating a bit for the City Daily Photo theme day today. Metro Manila has several well-organized upscale weekend markets nowadays (markets where rich people don't mind being seen at), but I was too lazy to go out on a Sunday morning just to take pictures since it's the one day in the week when I don't have to wake up early for work. So here is a view of a quite unintentional open-air market: an alley in Manila's Chinatown in Binondo. Contrary to what its narrow, busy streets look like, Binondo has one of the highest land values in the metro. So it is hardly surprising that stores and vendors use every available space to set up their merchandise, and that includes alleys and sidewalks.




Go virtual shopping with CDP bloggers around the world. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Old and new

The facade and bell tower of the Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz, better known as Binondo Church after the district in the City of Manila where it is located, date back from 1852 and are the only parts of the church, built by Spanish Dominicans for Chinese immigrants who converted to Christianity, which survived WWII. The roof over the driveway is definitely part of the 1946 to 1984 restoration, as you can tell from the smoothness of the stone.

Pink

Pink Patio is a Chinese restaurant in Binondo, Manila. The food is good but the furniture is nondescript and not particularly comfortable, but I do love the atrium in the middle of the building (even when the sky is overcast). The atrium and the building's pink paint give the place its name.

In case anyone has heard of it and is wondering, the beach resort with the same name on the island of Boracay is owned by the same family, although the restaurant is the original Pink Patio. The resort's name has been changed already, though, and is now called Patio Pacific Boracay.

Amidst the bustle

A street-side shrine in Binondo, Manila's Chinatown. I can't figure out what religion it serves though, since it has both incense sticks and a crucifix, and the sign on the right was announcing a Mass. Are incense sticks used instead of candles in Chinese Catholic churches? If anyone knows, I'd appreciate a little cultural lesson.

Fancy feet

Traditional, handcrafted products still abound in the Philippines, including Metro Manila. I saw these hand-beaded slippers in Binondo, Manila's Chinatown, and they were selling for only 285 pesos (just a little more than six U.S. dollars).

Like sardines in a can

Binondo, Manila's Chinatown, is a very densely populated district. According to the 2007 population census of the Philippine National Statistics Office, more than twelve thousand people are packed into its .66 square kilometer (.26 square mile) area. All of the buildings I see there are narrow and at least three stories high. Most of the apartment buildings also have shops or eateries on the ground level.

Repaired

Only the facade and the Chinese-influenced octagonal bell tower of the 1852 Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz, better known as the Binondo Church, survived the flattening of the City of Manila during WWII. It is easy to see which the oldest parts are, with their damaged reliefs and cracked pillars, but it is also quite easy to see where they are repaired and reinforced with new concrete.

Little palace

The interior of the Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz or the Binondo Church. I wish I knew more about it, like who designed it or if it replicates the interior design of the old church, but I can't find anything about it. All I know for sure is that everything that you see here is post-WWII, unlike the facade and bell tower from the previous post.

Into your hands I commend my spirit

Being mostly a Catholic country, the Philippines has been on holiday since yesterday, Maundy Thursday, the first day of the Easter Triduum. Yesterday, the mass, which commemorates the last supper, included a re-enactment of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples and ended with the body of Christ (the consecrated hosts) being placed in the altar of repose, where they will stay until the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. There are no masses today, Good Friday. Instead, other prayer services commemorating the passion and death of Jesus are held: the recitation of and sermons about his seven last words, the way of the cross, and the chanting of the pasyon (the paschal narrative in poetry). There will be no masses tomorrow, Black Saturday, either. But vigils will be held in most churches, which will culminate early Sunday morning in the salubong (meeting), a celebration of the first meeting of the resurrected Christ with his mother Mary. This is a portion of the arched ceiling of the Binondo Church, which is covered with paintings depicting scenes from the life of Jesus. The rectangular paintings at the bottom are the guides for the way of the cross, half of which are on the other side of the church. In most churches, one just goes around the periphery. Here, it seems that one is meant to cross from one side of the church to the other as one prays and remembers the suffering and death that Jesus Christ had to go through.

Ride me

THEME DAY: ANIMALS • Even when fully mature, the little brown horses of our kalesas, which are still used as public transportation in some parts of Manila, rarely grow taller than the average Filipino male (around 5'4" or 163 cm). This patient beast, and his colorful burden, was waiting for commuters in front of the Binondo Church.

Kahol! Miaow! Kokak! Taktalaok! See more animals from City Daily Photo bloggers around the world.

This should have been scenic

Standing on the outer walls of Fort Santiago beside the Pasig River, one can look east and see Binondo (Manila's Chinatown) across the river and the Manila Central Post Office building just beyond Jones Bridge. The 25-kilometer Pasig River connects Laguna de Bay (the largest lake in the Philippines) and Manila Bay. During the Spanish colonial era, it was a very important transport route, but because of uncontrolled population growth and industrialization after WWII, the river was neglected. Factories and scores of informal settlers on its banks dumped—and continue to dump—their waste in it, using it as their personal sewage system. Since the 1990s, the Pasig River has been considered ecologically dead. Needless to say, its pollution also affects Laguna de Bay and Manila Bay. There have been several attempts to gather support for the river's rehabilitation through the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission, but they have been intermittent and never gained much ground. With 50,000 to 100,000 potential voters settled (illegally) on its banks, and national elections coming up next year, I don't think that any attempt to rehabilitate the river will succeed any time soon.