Top 10 Remarquable Facts about Binondo

Chinatown, Manila, Philippines by Fabio Achilli – Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Remarquable Facts about Binondo

Binondo is the oldest Chinatown in the world. A melting pot of the Filipino and Chinese, Binondo has a rich history and heritage that dates back to the early years of Spanish colonialization. Food, landmarks, relics, customs, and the thriving business scene are the community’s signature.

Binondo was established in 1594 as a settlement for Chinese immigrants who converted to Catholicism. The first church built in Binondo was the Binondo Church founded by the Dominican friars in 1596. Today, Binondo Church holds masses in Filipino, Hokkien, Mandarin, and English to cater to the current Filipino and Chinese parishioners.

Noted residents of Binondo include Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, the Filipino protomartyr, and Venerable Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo, founder of the Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary.

Here are the top 10 remarquable Facts about Binondo.

1. Binondo is the oldest Chinatown in the world

Binondo was established in 1594 by the Spaniards as a settlement near Intramuros but across the Pasig River for Catholic Chinese, it was positioned so those colonial rulers could keep a close eye on their migrant subjects. It was already a hub of Chinese commerce even before the Spanish colonial period.

A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as Chinatown exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa, and Australasia.

2. Binondo is the center of commerce and trade in Manila

Chinatown, Manila, Philippines by Ramon FVelasquez – Wikimedia Commons

Binondo is the center of commerce and trade in Manila, where all types of businesses run by Filipino-Chinese thrive.

Manila is the capital of the Philippines and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and as of 2019 was the world’s most densely populated city proper. 

3. Binondo gets its name from its hilly terrain

Numerous theories on the origin of the name Binondo, and that of Tondo, its neighboring district, have been put forward. 

Philippine National Artist Nick Joaquin suggested that the names might have been derived from the archaic spelling of the Tagalog term binondoc, modern orthography: binundók, or mountainous, referring to Binondo’s originally hilly terrain.

4. Binondo was created as a permanent settlement for Chinese immigrants

First United Building At Escolta Street, Binondo, Manila by Patrick Roque – Wikimedia Commons

Founded in 1594, Binondo was created by Spanish Governor Luis Pérez Dasmariñas. He intended it as a permanent settlement for Chinese immigrants who converted to Catholicism. It was across the river from the walled city of 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.

5. The Spanish Dominican fathers made Binondo their parish 

Binondo soon became the place where Chinese immigrants converted to Catholicism, intermarried with indigenous Filipino women, and had children, who became the Chinese mestizo 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, the Chinese immigrants who refused to convert.

6. Binondo was damaged during the brief British occupation of Manila

Cascos in the Binondo Canal – Wikimedia Commons

The British occupation of Manila was an episode in the colonial history of the Philippines when the Kingdom of Great Britain occupied the Spanish colonial capital of Manila and the nearby port of Cavite for twenty months from 1762 to 1764. 

The British wanted to use Manila as an entrepôt for trade in the region, particularly with China. The British won, leading to a twenty-month occupation of Manila.

7. Before World War II, Binondo was the center of a banking and financial community

This included insurance companies, commercial banks, and other financial institutions from Britain 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.’’

8. Binondo is said to have one of the highest land values nationwide

Binondo Church, Manila by Elmer B. Domingo – Wikimedia Commons

The local Chinese businessmen engaged in massive black market trading of US dollars, which often determined the national peso-dollar exchange rate.

A black market is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules.

Given its rich historical and financial significance, Binondo is said to have one of the highest land values nationwide.

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

He mentioned them in two novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.

José Protasio was a Filipino nationalist, writer, and polymath active at the end of the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines. He is considered the national hero of the Philippines.

An ophthalmologist by profession, Rizal became a writer and a key member of the Filipino Propaganda Movement, which advocated political reforms for the colony under Spain.

10. Binondo Church was founded by Dominican priests in 1596

Binondo Church, also known as the Minor Basilica and National Shrine of Saint Lorenzo Ruiz and formerly known as Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish, is located in the District of Binondo, Manila.

The church was founded by Dominican priests in 1596 to serve their Chinese converts to Christianity. The original building was destroyed in 1762 by a British bombardment. A new granite church was completed on the same site in 1852 however it was greatly damaged during the Second World War, with only the western façade and the octagonal belfry surviving.