A Tour in Binondo, Manila

             Binondo is known as Chinatown or a Filipino-Chinese Community, but of course even pure Pinoy are welcome to their place. If you are here, you will feel that you’re in China because where ever you go you can see the trademarks of being Chinese. Like dragon designs which is a prosperity symbol among Chinese people. But you can find also a Catholic Church in the midst of Binondo.

            If you’re looking for different good or commodities; you can drop by in Ongpin St. This was named after Don Ramon Ongpin (1847-1912). He was known as a Tsinoy who helped the revolutionary movement during Spanish Era. He helped through giving financial assistance to the revolutionary movement. There was also a story that he burned his house just to get insurance. Then, he gave the money to the Filipino soldiers. As an honor to him, the Binondo people built a statue to remind them his greatness. Even he is not a pure Pinoy, his love for the Philippines was incomparable.

            By the way, Ongpin St. is a commercial district. There are many jewelry stores here, a favorite destination of women who loves gold. Men also are coming here to buy jewelry as a gift for their love on especially when they will get marry. Other people said that the jewelry here has high quality. Of course, we knew that gold is very expensive, make sure that you have enough budget if you want to buy here.

            Chinese are very superstitious people that’s why they are selling different lucky charm paraphernalia like crystals, Buddha figures, etc. But aside from being a shopping center, you can find also in Binondo some old Chinese restaurants, one of them is The Palace Restaurant. If you love Chinese delicacies, you can buy tikoy and hopia especially Eng Bee Tin, a very famous hopia brand in our country.

            When you visit Binondo, one thing for sure; you would learn about their rich culture or how the way they live. Binondo speak itself that they already reached a milestone compared to their old lives here in our country. From being a taho vendor, now almost of them are big-time businessmen.