Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1
Ruiz was falsely accused of killing a Spaniard in 1636. It was probably because of this
that he was encouraged to go to Japan, where he was arrested in Nagasaki in 1637 for
spreading Christianity, and was executed for refusing to renounce his faith. The Vatican
canonized him in 1987.
Ongpin Street
LRT to Carriedo
Ongpin Street
, Binondo's principal thoroughfare, is about 2km long and runs eastwards
through the heart of Chinatown to Santa Cruz Church. It was originally called Calle
Sacristia but was renamed in 1915 after Roman Ongpin, a fervent nationalist who was
said to be the first Chinese-Filipino to wear the
barong tagalog
, the formal shirt that
became the national dress for men. Ongpin Street is now chock-full of restaurants,
noodle parlours, apothecaries and shops selling goods imported from China, though
it tends to shut down early these days; you'll find the nearby
Benavidez Street
more
lively at night.
Santa Cruz Church
Plaza Santa Cruz • Daily 6am-10pm • LRT to Carriedo
An immense white Baroque structure,
Santa Cruz Church
was originally completed
in the seventeenth century for the swelling ranks of Chinese in the area, but was
most recently rebuilt in 1957 after damage from earthquakes and war. The most
revered image inside is a 250-year-old replica of the
Nuestra Señora del Pilar
, an
apparition of Mary (the original of which is in Zaragoza, Spain), but the interior is
otherwise unexceptional.
Escolta
LRT to Carriedo
The shopping street
Calle Escolta
, which leads southwest off Plaza Santa Cruz, was
named after the horse-mounted military escorts of the British commander-in-chief
during the British occupation of 1762. In the nineteenth century this was where
Manila's elite promenaded and shopped, but its dizzy days as a Champs-Élysées of
the Orient are long gone. Only a few examples of the street's former glory remain;
just across the river on the right is the
First United Building
, a pink and white Art
Deco gem designed in 1928 by Andres Luna de San Pedro, the son of painter Juan
Luna. Opposite is another of his buildings, the all-white
Regina Building
of 1934,
at 400-402 Escolta, with its Art Nouveau cupolas. Both buildings are occupied by
shops and small businesses today.
Escolta Museum
2/F, Calvo Building, 266 Escolta St • Tues-Sun 9am-noon & 1-5pm • P100 •
T
02 241 4538
The beaux-arts Calvo Building, completed in 1933, contains the quirky
Escolta
Museum
(ask the guard at the building entrance to let you in). The main attraction is
an extensive collection of multicoloured vintage bottles, but there are also scale models
of Escolta's handsome buildings, old photos and paper advertisements from the 1930s.
Quiapo Church
910 Plaza Miranda, a short walk along Carriedo St from Plaza Santa Cruz • Daily 5am-7pm •
T
02 733 4434 ext 100,
W
quiapochurch.com •
LRT to Carriedo
O
cially called the Minor Basilica of St John the Baptist,
Quiapo Church
- as
everyone in Manila calls it - is the home of the
Black Nazarene
, a supposedly
