Lucky Chinatown changes Binondo's landscape

Have you been to Chinatown in Binondo lately?

Located across the Pasig River from the Walled City of Intramuros, Manila Chinatown hogged the headlines recently when CNNGo, the travel website of Cable News Network (CNN), included it on the list of the “World’s Best Chinatowns.”

Binondo may be the busiest and most crowded spot in the metro, but people from all walks of life prefer to get lost in this crazy maze of thrift shops, jewelry stores, age-old churches, apothecaries selling traditional Chinese herbal medicines, hole-in-the-wall restos and the popular estero(creek) eatery selling Soup No. 5 (made from bulls’ testicles), siomai, siopao, noodles, diced hopia, among other delish food items. And since Binondo now joins the ranks of the most scenic Chinatowns found in major cities of the world — Havana, Cuba; Kolkata, India; Bangkok, Thailand; Johannesburg, South Africa; Melbourne, Australia; Vancouver, Canada; San Francisco, US; and London, England — don’t you think it’s time to revisit not just one of the best but the oldest Chinatowns in the world?

A new lifestyle destination rises in Binondo

The landmark Binondo Church, which was built in 1596, is undeniably Binondo’s standout feature. It is home to the miraculous Santo Cristo de Longos or Crucified Christ.

Adjacent to the church is Ongpin St., which is famous for the winding rows of jewelry shops that sell real Chinese gold, hardware shops, and Chinese drugstores that offer exotic concoctions like freshly squeezed cobra bile.

Over at Reina Regente Street, a new lifestyle destination rises which is aimed at bringing Binondo back to its glory days as a thriving commercial, shopping and tourism hub in Manila.

Lucky Chinatown, Megaworld Corporation’s heritage project, was built to revive and enliven the trade, commerce and tourism activities that defined Binondo for so many years.

Having grown up in the area, Megaworld Corporation chairman and CEO Andrew Tan wanted to give back to the community and its people. And putting up this upscale urban renewal project that will cater the needs of the people of Binondo and its environs became his means of achieving this objective.

By enhancing the area’s aging landscape and sprucing up the surrounding neighborhood through this lifestyle development, Megaworld Corporation looks to inject new excitement and breathe new life into the area while staying true to its Chinese-Filipino roots.

A walk to remember: The Chinatown Walk’s unique design and layout bare close resemblance to the Manila Chinatown of the past. Here, shoppers are brought back in time to experience the best of Binondo.

A new kind of shopping experience

In building Lucky Chinatown, Megaworld didn’t intend to compete against the establishments that offer wholesale and knock-off items already present in the area.

“Lucky Chinatown was built primarily to serve the people living within Binondo and its nearby communities so they need not go to distant shopping districts like Makati and Quezon City. Although there is already a large presence of establishments selling low-priced merchandise and offering authentic Chinese cuisines, Binondo is often too crowded and muddled that it falls short of offering shoppers the variety, convenience and exquisiteness that an upscale mall like Lucky Chinatown can offer,” explains Kevin Tan, first vice president and commercial division head of Megaworld.

At Lucky Chinatown, shoppers can look forward to a world-class shopping experience, great dining and worthwhile entertainment not seen and experienced before in this part of the metro.

The new mall offers a wide selection of local and international fashion brands for all ages. It’s home to international brands such as 158 Designer’s Boulevard, Mango, Cache Cache, Esprit, Clark’s, Payless, Levi’s, Nautica, Spreey, Charles & Ketih, Giordano, and Cotton On. The shopping continues with an exciting mix of local brands that we have come to love and are starting to get worldwide recognition. Local favorites include Bench, Kashieca, Human, F&H, Bayo, Penshoppe, Oxygen, Plains and Prints, Maldita, and many more.

Style-savvy kids aren’t left out as they, too, can make heads turn with fab items from Barbie & Elle, Baby Fashionistas, Bench Tweeners, Shoe Thing and Ollie & Collie.

Grooming and wellness is also covered at Lucky Chinatown with stores like Beauty Bar, The Body Shop, Shiseido, Bench Fix, GQ Barbershop, Nailaholics, Vivere Salon, and Beijing Foot Spa. Lucky Chinatown Mall also offers specialty stores and services that fill your varied needs such as Mercury Drug, Lyric, Casio Service Center, Globe Telecom, The Sun Shop, iFX, Alteration Plus, Mr. Quickie, Printers for Less and Pixel Point.

After their much-needed retail therapy, busy moms can shop for fresh produce, quality food products, and everyday household items at reasonable prices at Metro Market Supermarket, which occupies two levels of the mall.

Lucky Chinatown has also put in place a full range of Concierge services that guarantee a hassle-free shopping experience From valuable customer assistance to payment facilities to merchants offering a variety of services for personal needs and comfort, the upscale mall offers just about everything they need.

Food for thought

For lovers of good food, the best place to start a food tour in Binondo is on Carvajal Street, also known as the Umbrella Alley (so-called for the colorful umbrellas that provide shade for small street stalls), which offers some of the best street food in the city.

For more delectable eats, head over to Lucky Chinatown. Its roster of restaurants offers the best of Asian and Western cuisines. The imperial China-inspired restaurant King Chef teases the palate with its authentic Chinese dishes such as the Chicken Fortune Bags, Crystal Ball Dumplings, Peking duck rice topping, and fine Peking duck. There’s also Tao Yuan, which specializes in shabu-shabu and dimsum.

For a taste of Asia and other cuisines, indulge in the sumptuous spread offered by Little Asia, Kogi Bulgogi, Sumo Sam, Bon Chon Chicken, The Red Crab Alimango House, Italiannis, Uncle Cheffy and Kuse.

Don’t leave Lucky Chinatown without dining at Italianni’s, Shilin, Healthy Shabu-Shabu and Kirin Shechuan Dining. Kirin restaurant serves Chinese fare cooked She Zhuan style, a food preparation method that relies heavily on the flavors of garlic and chili peppers combined with the unique taste of peanuts, sesame paste, and ginger. Best-sellers are the kung pao diced chicken, baked prawn in orange sauce, and black sesame pancake.

Family fun at lucky Chinatown

Lucky Chinatown offers great entertainment choices for the whole family, making their shopping and leisure more fun and exciting. It boasts four upscale movie theaters equipped with state-of-the-art audio and video equipment. What attracts movie buffs to Lucky Chinatown Cinemas is its unique Emperor Twin Seats designed to accommodate two people comfortably with its extra leg room and retractable middle armrests. You can also watch movies for only P100 on weekdays from 10AM to 3PM until October 31.

Treat your kids to a taste of fine dining and luscious meals at the restaurants you fancy this October only at Lucky Chinatown. Children aged 10 and below are entitled to free kiddie meals with every purchase of an adult entrée at participating restaurants on weekdays from Oct. 1 to 31.

Something old, something new

Completing the Lucky Chinatown experience is the soon-to-open Chinatown Walk, allowing shoppers to go back to the old times and relive Binondo’s old roots. With its unique design and layout that bare close resemblance to the Manila Chinatown of the past, shoppers are brought back in time to experience the best of Binondo.

The Chinatown Walk is an exciting street concept reviving the famed Chinatown with select homegrown Chinatown restaurants, delicatessen, furniture, jewelry and herbal Chinese medicines mixed with hand-picked cafés and tea salons.

Among the specialty shops and outlets that shoppers can look forward to are Keean’s fried siopao, Sincerity, Ai Ren Tang and Natural Charms and Feng Shui.

“We wanted to provide a safe environment where tourists and visitors can enjoy the Chinatown Walk,” notes Kevin.

For its final phase, Lucky Chinatown will have a museum showcasing the best of Chinese culture. It will house prized Chinese artifacts, paintings and other valuable collections.

With Lucky Chinatown’s upscale interiors, bright lighting and serene ambience, shopping and dining in Binondo will never be the same again.

Lucky Chinatown is located at Reina Regente St. corner Dela Reina St., Binondo, Manila and is open from 10AM to 10PM. For inquiries on Megaworld Lifestyle Malls, call the concierge at 709-9888, 709-0888, SMS 0917-8380111, or visit www.megaworldlifestylemalls.com.