Binondo rising

MANILA, Philippines - First, there’s the World Trade Exchange Building along Juan Luna Street with its conspicuous, circular observation deck. Along the Pasig River, between Escolta and Muelle de Industria Streets, towers Federal Land’s Riverside Mansion. A few kilometers behind it stands the purple behemoth reported to be the tallest building in Binondo, the 56-story Anchorland Skysuites. And various developers are currently constructing several more skyscrapers.

Indeed, Binondo is rising to reclaim its place on the map as Manila’s premier business district.

From the modernity that has risen from it, one wouldn’t assume that Binondo is one of the oldest existing Chinatowns in the world. But a visit to its narrow streets and iconic landmarks will give glimpses of the antiquity that modern Binondo is rising from.

Chinese-Filipino relations trace their roots to the 9th century when trade relations between Chinese and early Philippine kingdoms were recorded by Chinese chroniclers. One such chronicler was Zhao Rugua (also known as Chao Ju-kua), a government official working in Quanzhou, Fujian Province in the 13th century.

According to Zhao’s two-volume book Zhu fan zhi (also known as A Description of Barbarian Nations, Records of Foreign People in English), Chinese merchants were engaged in trade with the natives of the Philippines — known to them as Mayi — as early as the year 982. Among the goods that the natives sold to them were cotton, betel nuts, tortoise shell and hemp cloth, which were exchanged for silk, iron needles, porcelain, trade gold, lead and colored glass beads.

The Chinese enjoyed such good trade relations with the Filipinos during the precolonial times that when the Spanish arrived in Manila in 1571, they found out there was already a community of ethnic Chinese in the city. Many of the ethnic Chinese living in the Philippines at the time came from either Fujian or Guangdong Province (which were the Chinese provinces closest to the Philippines) and spoke Hokkien or Cantonese.

The establishment of the first Chinatown in the Philippines was born out of Spanish distrust for the Chinese. It began in 1574 when the Chinese pirate Limahong arrived on the shores of Palanyag (now Parañaque) and tried to conquer the newly created colonial outpost.

“While the Spanish were able to drive out Limahong with the aid of native warriors, the invasion made the Spanish paranoid about Chinese presence in Philippine shores. Since then, they’ve treated the Chinese with suspicion and placed them in a position lower than the natives,” said historian and professor Xiao Chua of the De La Salle University.

In 1582, a decade after the Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi turned Manila into the capital city of the Philippines, Governor-General Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peñalosa established the Parian outside of the gates of the walled city of Intramuros.

“It was designated as the place where the non-Christian, ethnic Chinese were permitted to live and trade in order to segregate them from the Spanish living within the walled city. The Parian used to be situated on what is now Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila and stretched as far as Arroceros Forest Park beside Quezon Bridge. The Spanish had the cannons of Intramuros aimed toward Parian in case the ethnic Chinese decide to revolt,” Chua explained.

But even as the Spanish gave them their own enclave outside of the city’s walls, the Chinese continued to be persecuted. To avoid such discrimination, many Chinese were forced to embrace Catholicism and intermarried with the natives. It was the offspring of these intermarriages that were called mestizo de sangley, a term that the Spanish used to refer to people of mixed Chinese and Filipino ancestry. Sangley came from the Chinese word for “traveling merchant.” Many Catholic Chinese and mestizo de sangleys also adopted Spanish surnames or romanized their Chinese surnames in order to look more Spanish. Hence came forth surnames such as Tiangco, Landicho, Locsin, Cojuangco, Tantoco, among others.

In 1594, under the administration of Governor-General Luiz Perez Dasmariñas, the Catholic Chinese and mestizo de sangleys were given their own enclave separate from Parian. Established on the hilly northern bank of the Pasig River, the new enclave was called Binondo, from the Tagalog word binundok.

Regardless of their efforts to adapt to new colonial masters, Spanish discrimination and persecution of the Chinese continued, which led to periods of Chinese revolt in 1603, 1639 and 1662, resulting in the destruction of Parian and the massacre of ethnic Chinese, perpetrated by the Spanish and their Filipino and Japanese allies.

Nevertheless, despite the persecution they endured from the Spanish, the Chinese were valued for the goods and services they provided to the new colony. According to Chua, the Spanish called the galleons that plied the Manila-Acapulco route as nao de Chino since most of the goods these vessels carried such as silk, jade, and porcelain came from mainland China.

Being skillful and hardworking artisans, the Chinese were hired to construct Spanish churches and buildings. Their craftsmanship is still visible today in the pagoda-like belfries of Chinatown Catholic churches such as the Binondo Church and Sta. Cruz Church. A few Chinese-Filipino men even joined the Spanish in their evangelization efforts in Japan, such as St. Lorenzo Ruiz, who was martyred in Nagasaki, Japan.

Over the centuries of trading with and serving the Spanish, many Chinese families were able to build a distinguished status in society for themselves. Proof of this distinguished status is the many Chinese-owned establishments such as banks, retail shops, restaurants, soda fountains, department stores and theaters that flourished in Binondo, particularly along Escolta Street.

By the turn of the century, Escolta had become Binondo’s famed commercial strip. Before the rise of Ayala Avenue in Makati City and Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, Escolta was Manila’s version of Wall Street and attracted a variety of businesses — Chinese, Spanish, American and Filipino. The nearby Plaza Cervantes was also home to the country’s first stock trading platform, the Manila Stock Exchange, established at the Insular Life Building in 1927. The tranvia or electric tram ran through Escolta Street, which enabled commuters to easily go around the district to shop, eat, entertain and conduct business.

The onslaught of World War II abruptly interrupted Binondo’s growth as a central business district, but it immediately grew once more during the post-war period, thanks to the efforts of intrepid Chinese businessmen who migrated from communist China in the ‘50s to find new opportunities in democratic Philippines. It became home to major banks, insurance companies, department stores, record stores and cinemas. Sharp-looking businessmen drove about its streets in their Buicks and Fords. Fine women in the cosmopolitan attire of the time walked its sidewalks to see what was in store in its clothing outlets.

But Binondo’s rapid growth was also its undoing. Heavy traffic due to the large volume of vehicles plying its streets made commercial and business life in the district unbearable. This led several businesses to relocate to the newly established Makati Central Business District beginning in the ‘60s. This led to Escolta’s decline and abandonment in the decades that followed.

What remains as physical reminders of Binondo’s heyday as Manila’s premier business district lie in the old American-era buildings along Escolta — the Burke Building, Natividad Building, Regina Building, among others.

Around these buildings, a new Binondo is rising with its skyscrapers. A new generation of Chinese-Filipinos and Chinese immigrants is fueling Binondo’s rebirth as a modern metropolis. Thanks in part to communist China’s economic growth in the ‘90s, many mainland Chinese businesses are expanding their reach to the Philippines, bringing with it strong demand for urban housing in the district that led to new condominium developments.

The renewed preference for Binondo lies in the fact that it’s closer to the commercial districts of Divisoria and Quiapo, where many Chinese merchants conduct business. It is also close to the industrial cities of Caloocan, Navotas and Valenzuela, and to shipping facilities in Manila’s Port Area. Chinese-Filipino families can also easily send their children to schools in the nearby University Belt as well as several Chinese Catholic schools within the district.

For the religious Chinese, Binondo is home to several Catholic churches as well as Chinese temples. They are also not far away from their deceased relatives and ancestors at the Chinese Cemetery just north of the district.

The tranvia may be long gone, but Binondo remains connected to the rest of the metropolis like Tutuban, where one can hop on the PNR train to go to other parts of the metro. If you prefer a more comfortable commute, there are LRT stations on Recto and Carriedo. And, it’s also convenient to go around Binondo’s streets on a bike.

Without a doubt, Binondo is rising at an unprecedented pace. In no time, one of the oldest Chinatowns in the world shall reclaim its rightful place in history as Manila’s premier central business district.