Binondo is an enclave in Manila

Manila

Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...

 primarily populated by ethnic Chinese living in the Philippines. Chinatown, Manila (Binondo) is the oldest Chinatown in the world, established in 1594. Historically, this was where the Spanish permitted converted sangleys, their indigenous Filipino

Filipino people

The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....

 wives, and their mixed-race descendants, the mestizos de sangley

Sangley

Sangley , is an archaic term used in the Philippines to describe and classify a person of pure Chinese ancestry, while mestizo de sangley was used to refer to a person of mixed Chinese and indigenous ancestry Sangley (Sangleye, Sangley Mestizo, Mestisong Sangley, Mestizo de Sangley or Chinese...

or Chinese mestizos, to reside. Similarly, Parían, an area near Intramuros

Intramuros

Intramuros is the oldest district in the present day city of Manila, the capital of the Republic of the Philippines. Nicknamed the "Walled City", Intramuros is the historic fortified city of Manila, the seat ot the government during the Spanish Colonial Period. Its name in Latin, intramuros,...

, was where the Spanish first restricted unconverted Chinese immigrants. They allowed sangley settlement at Parían because it was within the range of Intramuros

Intramuros

Intramuros is the oldest district in the present day city of Manila, the capital of the Republic of the Philippines. Nicknamed the "Walled City", Intramuros is the historic fortified city of Manila, the seat ot the government during the Spanish Colonial Period. Its name in Latin, intramuros,...

' cannons, and they felt they could control any uprising from the labourers.

Located across the Pasig River

Pasig River

The Pasig River is a river in the Philippines that connects Laguna de Bay to Manila Bay. Stretching for , it is lined by Metro Manila on each side...

 from Intramuros, Binondo has typified a small Chinese town, and is referred to as the local "China Town

Chinatown

A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...

". The district is the centre of commerce and trade for all types of businesses run by Filipino-Chinese merchants. Given the historic reach of Chinese trading in the Pacific, Binondo was already a hub of Chinese commerce before the first Spanish colonisers arrived in 1521.

Binondo is also considered a historic centre of the mestizo de sangley

Sangley

Sangley , is an archaic term used in the Philippines to describe and classify a person of pure Chinese ancestry, while mestizo de sangley was used to refer to a person of mixed Chinese and indigenous ancestry Sangley (Sangleye, Sangley Mestizo, Mestisong Sangley, Mestizo de Sangley or Chinese...

community; famous residents include St. Lorenzo Ruiz, the Filipino protomartyr, and Venerable

Venerable

The Venerable is used as a style or epithet in several Christian churches. It is also the common English-language translation of a number of Buddhist titles.-Roman Catholic:...

 Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo, founder of the Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary

Religious of the Virgin Mary

The Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary is a ecclesiastical community of vowed religious Roman Catholic women of pontifical right and approval founded in Manila, Philippines. The community was founded in 1684 by Venerable Mother Ignacia del Espíritu Santo, a Filipino Roman Catholic...

.

Etymology

The name "Binondo" is a toponym derived from the archaic spelling of the Tagalog

Tagalog language

Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV and of Metro Manila...

 term "binondoc" (modern orthography: binundók), or mountainous, referring to the district's originally hilly terrain.

History

Founded in 1594, Binondo was created by Spanish Governor Luis Pérez Dasmariñas

Luis Pérez Dasmariñas

Luis Pérez Dasmariñas was a Spanish soldier and governor of the Philippines from December 3, 1593 to July 14, 1596. In 1596 he sent unsuccessful expeditions to conquer Cambodia and Mindanao.Pérez Dasmariñas was a knight of the Order of Alcántara...

 as a permanent settlement for Chinese immigrants (the Spanish called the Chinese sangley

Sangley

Sangley , is an archaic term used in the Philippines to describe and classify a person of pure Chinese ancestry, while mestizo de sangley was used to refer to a person of mixed Chinese and indigenous ancestry Sangley (Sangleye, Sangley Mestizo, Mestisong Sangley, Mestizo de Sangley or Chinese...

s) who convert

Convert

The convert or try, in American football known as "point after", and Canadian football "Point after touchdown", is a one-scrimmage down played immediately after a touchdown during which the scoring team is allowed to attempt to score an extra one point by kicking the ball through the uprights , or...

ed to Catholicism

Catholicism

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....

. It was across the river from the walled city of Intramuros

Intramuros

Intramuros is the oldest district in the present day city of Manila, the capital of the Republic of the Philippines. Nicknamed the "Walled City", Intramuros is the historic fortified city of Manila, the seat ot the government during the Spanish Colonial Period. Its name in Latin, intramuros,...

, where the Spaniards resided. Originally it was intended to replace the Parian near Intramuros, where the Chinese were first confined. The Spanish gave a land grant for Binondo to a group of Chinese merchants and artisans in perpetuity, tax-free and with limited self-governing privileges.

The Spanish Dominican

Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...

 fathers made Binondo their parish and succeeded in converting many of the residents to Catholicism. Binondo soon became the place where Chinese immigrants converted to Catholicism, intermarried with indigenous

Indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

 Filipino women and had children, who became the Chinese mestizo

Mestizo

Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...

community. Over the years, the Chinese mestizo population of Binondo grew rapidly. This was caused mainly because the lack of Chinese immigrant females and the Spanish officials' policy of expelling or killing (in conflicts) Chinese immigrants who refused to convert.

In 1603 a Chinese revolt took place led by Juan Suntay, a wealthy Catholic Chinese. It was put down by joint Spanish and native forces led by Luis Pérez Dasmariñas

Luis Pérez Dasmariñas

Luis Pérez Dasmariñas was a Spanish soldier and governor of the Philippines from December 3, 1593 to July 14, 1596. In 1596 he sent unsuccessful expeditions to conquer Cambodia and Mindanao.Pérez Dasmariñas was a knight of the Order of Alcántara...

. In the aftermath most of the 20,000 Chinese that composed the colony were killed. The revolt took place right after a visit to Manila by three official Chinese representatives who disclosed they were searching for "a mountain of gold". This strange claim prompted the Spanish to conclude that there was an imminent invasion from China in the making. At the time the local Chinese outnumbered the Spaniards by twenty to one, and Spanish authorities feared that they would join the invading forces. The Chinese afterward played down those events in an attempt to preserve their commercial interests, and in 1605 a Fukien official issued a letter claiming that the Chinese who had participated in the revolt were unworthy of China's protection, describing them as "deserters of the tombs of their ancestors".

During the brief British occupation of Manila, between 1762 and 1764, Binondo was bombarded on several occasions and some of its structures destroyed. Many Spanish, Mestizos, Chinese and natives were killed and brought into prisons indiscriminately.
Binondo became the main center for business and finance in Manila for the ethnic Chinese, Chinese mestizos and Spanish Filipinos. During the Spanish colonial period, many esteros (canals) were constructed in the Binondo area, from where they entered the Pasig River

Pasig River

The Pasig River is a river in the Philippines that connects Laguna de Bay to Manila Bay. Stretching for , it is lined by Metro Manila on each side...

. Among the many who married at the historic Binondo Church was Andres Bonifacio

Andres Bonifacio

Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro was a Filipino nationalist and revolutionary. He was a founder and later Supremo of the Katipunan movement which sought the independence of the Philippines from Spanish colonial rule and started the Philippine Revolution...

 in 1895, who became a hero of the Philippine Revolution

Philippine Revolution

The Philippine Revolution , called the "Tagalog War" by the Spanish, was an armed military conflict between the people of the Philippines and the Spanish colonial authorities which resulted in the secession of the Philippine Islands from the Spanish Empire.The Philippine Revolution began in August...

.

Before World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Binondo was the centre of a banking and financial community which included insurance companies, commercial banks and other financial institutions from Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and the United States. These banks were located mostly along Escólta, which used to be called the "Wall Street of the Philippines".

After the war and new development, most businesses began to relocate to the newer area of Makati. During the financial crisis of the early 1980s, it had the moniker "Binondo Central Bank", as the local Chinese businessmen engaged in massive black market trading of US Dollars, which often determined the national Peso-Dollar exchange rate. Given its rich historical and financial significance, Binondo is said to have one of the highest land values nationwide.

Barangays

The largest barangay

Barangay

A barangay is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district or ward...

 in Binondo is San Nicolás.

Zone 27: 287, 288, 289, 290, 291
Zone 28: 292, 293, 294, 295, 296
Zone 25: 276

Barangays of Binondo

Name	Population (2007 census)
Barangay 287	2,445
Barangay 288	1,772
Barangay 289	543
Barangay 290	388
Barangay 291	370
Barangay 292	2,600
Barangay 293	571
Barangay 294	1,416
Barangay 295	1,145
Barangay 296	850

In Literature

Binondo was mentioned several times in the novels of Dr. Jose Rizal

José Rizal

José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda , was a Filipino polymath, patriot and the most prominent advocate for reform in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He is regarded as the foremost Filipino patriot and is listed as one of the national heroes of the Philippines by...

, for example, in Noli Me Tangere

Noli Me Tangere (novel)

Noli Me Tangere is a novel by Filipino polymath José Rizal and first published in 1887 in Berlin, Germany. Early English translations used titles like An Eagle Flight and The Social Cancer, but more recent translations have been published using the original Latin title.Though originally written in...

and El Filibusterismo

El filibusterismo

El filibusterismo , also known by its English alternate title The Reign of Greed, is the second novel written by Philippine national hero José Rizal. It is the sequel to Noli Me Tangere and like the first book, was written in Spanish. It was first published in 1891 in Ghent, Belgium...

.