Binondo is a neighbourhood in Manila populated predominantly by Chinese. Here is home to Manila's Chinatown, the oldest in the world, founded as early as 1594. Historically, Binondo was an area where the Spanish allowed Christian converts to settle. Christian converts from the Chinese immigrant population, their wives and and their mestizo descendants. Similarly, Parian, a zone not far from the ancient neighbourhood of Intramuros, was where the Spanish settled Chinese immigrants who had not converted to the the Christian faith. And the name "Binondo" comes from the Filipino word "binundok", which means "backwater".
Situated on the opposite bank of the Pasig River from Intramuros, Binondo is a typical example of a small Chinese city. This area is the centre of commerce and trade and trade carried on by people from the Middle Kingdom. Interestingly, even before the Spanish in 1521, Binondo was already the heart of the Chinese of Chinese trade in the Pacific.
Binondo is also considered the historical centre of the Sangli mestizo people - descendants of the Chinese and indigenous people of the Philippines - and their culture. Such a mestizo was Lorenzo Ruiz, who became the first Filipino saint to be canonised by the Catholic by the Catholic Church. The Binondo Square and Church, also known as the Little Basilica of St Lorenzo Ruiz, bears his name Basilica of St Lorenzo Ruiz. The other sangli is the Reverend Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo - founded the Community of the Faithful of the Virgin Mary in the Philippines.
In 1603, there was a Chinese rebellion in Binondo, led by Juan Santay, a wealthy Chinese man who had converted to Catholicism. It began immediately after a visit to Manila by three official Chinese officials who said they were going to to prospect for gold. This strange purpose of the delegation led the Spaniards to speculate of a possible imminent invasion from China. In those years, Manila's Chinese population far outnumbered the Spanish, and the Spanish feared that, in the event of an invasion, the Chinese would defect to their own side. The rebellion was brutally crushed by a Spanish army led by Luis Perez Dasmarinas. Subsequently, most of the 20,000 Chinese who rebelled were killed.
During the brief British occupation of Manila from 1762 to 1764, Binondo Binondo was subjected to heavy shelling several times, which destroyed a number of ancient buildings destroyed.
Prior to World War II, Binondo was a centre of banking and financial Binondo was a centre of banking and financial transactions, housing the offices of insurance companies, commercial banks and other financial institutions from Britain and the United States. The banks were located on the so-called "Philippine Wall Street" - Escolta Street. And after the war, the offices of large corporations began to move to Manila's new Makati neighbourhood. Today land in Binondo is considered one of the most expensive in the country.
