ManilaMaynila

Before the Spanish arrived, the mouth of the Pasig river held a trading settlement usually written as Maynila, from a Tagalog phrase for a place where the nila plant grows. It sat on a sheltered bay with river access to Laguna de Bay and the rice country behind, which is the same geography that still makes it useful. Chinese, Malay and other traders visited long before 1571.

In 1571 Miguel López de Legazpi took Maynila for Spain and founded the walled city of Intramuros beside it. For over three centuries it was the capital of the Spanish East Indies and the western end of the Manila galleon trade, which carried Chinese silk and porcelain to Acapulco in return for Mexican silver. The city was Spanish in law and religion but Chinese in commerce, which is why Binondo across the river, founded in the 1590s as a settlement for Chinese Catholic converts, is often called the oldest Chinatown in the world.

The British occupied the city from 1762 to 1764 during the Seven Years War and then returned it to Spain. In the nineteenth century the port opened to world trade, a Filipino educated class grew, and it produced José Rizal, a doctor and novelist whose books criticised colonial rule. Rizal was held in Fort Santiago and executed by firing squad on 30 December 1896 at Bagumbayan, now Luneta. The Philippine revolution had already begun, and independence was declared in June 1898, shortly before Spain handed the islands to the United States.

American planners then reshaped the city. Daniel Burnham drew up a plan in 1905 with a bayfront boulevard and a park at Luneta, and government buildings in neoclassical style rose along it. The Japanese occupied Manila in 1942. In February 1945 the Battle of Manila, fought street by street as American and Filipino forces retook the city, killed well over a hundred thousand civilians and destroyed most of Intramuros and much of the old centre. Little of pre-war Manila survived; what did is easy to count.

After the war the city grew outward: Makati became the business district in the 1960s, then Bonifacio Global City after 1995. The 1986 People Power revolution on EDSA ended the Marcos government. Today Metro Manila has over thirteen million people (2020 census, check) and Manila proper is one of sixteen cities in it.

Manila is not one centre but several, and each has a job. Intramuros is the walled old city: cobbled lanes, a fort, a cathedral and a few restored houses inside walls that once held the whole Spanish town. Most of it was rebuilt or left empty after 1945, so it is a sightseeing quarter rather than a place where many people live.

To the south along the bay, Ermita and Malate were the old tourist belt: hotels, cafés, embassies and bars along Roxas Boulevard and Mabini Street. Rizal Park (Luneta) sits at their northern end, with the national monument, lawns and three National Museum branches. It is the city's main public space and it is busiest on Sunday afternoons.

Across the Pasig, Binondo is the food quarter. Narrow lanes around Ongpin Street and Binondo Church hold shops for hopia and tikoy, dumpling houses, herbal sellers and gold dealers. Santa Cruz, Quiapo and Divisoria run on from it and are crowded market districts where the pace is fast and pickpockets are common. Quiapo Church is the home of the Black Nazarene and one of the country's main pilgrimage sites.

To the south-east, Makati is the financial district: glass towers, malls, gardens and expensive restaurants, connected by air-conditioned walkways. Nearby Poblacion is the bar quarter, and Bonifacio Global City in Taguig is newer, with a walkable grid, modern hotels and rooftop bars. Quezon City in the north-east is a huge residential and university district with its own food and arts scene at Cubao.

The practical lesson is that Manila is easier if you sleep in the box you plan to see. The two boxes, the old city and Makati, are only about ten kilometres apart but can be an hour or two apart on a bad afternoon. Travellers who mix them in one day usually spend the difference in traffic.

Manila's architecture is a record of what survived. The oldest stone building of any size is San Agustin Church, completed in 1607, with thick buttressed walls that suit an earthquake zone and a painted ceiling that imitates carved coffers. It belongs to the UNESCO listing for the Baroque Churches of the Philippines because it came through the 1945 battle when nearly everything else around it did not.

Fort Santiago and the Intramuros walls are the other Spanish survivals: massive stone and rubble walls, bastions with names of saints, and a few gates. Most of Intramuros was rebuilt from 1979 onward under a restoration authority, so some houses and gates you see are reconstructions of the original plans. This is worth knowing when you compare it with cities that kept their old centre intact.

The American period gave the city its neoclassical public buildings: the Legislative Building (now the National Museum of Fine Arts), the Post Office and the Finance Building beside the Pasig. They use white stone, columns and formal symmetry, and they mark the Burnham plan's axis from the bay. The nearby Manila Hotel, opened in 1912 and still operating, is the best example of the era's grand hotels.

Filipino houses have their own tradition. The bahay na bato ("house of stone") combines a stone lower floor with a timber upper floor, capiz-shell windows and long sliding shutters, designed for heat and earthquakes. Casa Manila in Intramuros is a reconstruction of one. You will also see the barong Tagalog, the sheer embroidered shirt, in shop windows, and the jeepney, an army-jeep bus decorated in bright colours, on almost every street.

After the war Manila built for growth, not beauty. Makati's towers, Bonifacio Global City's glass and the malls that anchor each district follow the rhythm of heat and traffic: air conditioning, covered walkways and everything under one roof. A visitor who wants to understand the modern city should spend an afternoon in a mall, and treat it as architecture rather than an escape from it.

Filipino food is built on sour, salty and sweet together. Vinegar, soy sauce, garlic and pepper make adobo, the dish most people call national; tamarind makes sinigang, a sour soup; peanuts thicken kare-kare; and calamansi, a small sour lime, goes on almost everything. Rice comes with every meal, and dishes are shared. Spanish, Chinese, Malay and American influences all show: lechon and paella from Spain, pancit and lumpia from China, and sweet spaghetti and hot dogs from the American years.

Binondo is the best place to see the Chinese layer. Dumpling houses serve northern-style dumplings and noodles; small counters sell siopao (steamed buns), lugaw (rice porridge) and pancit; and shops sell hopia, a flaky pastry with mung bean or ube filling, and tikoy, a sticky rice cake made for the New Year. Eat here from mid-morning, when the lanes are open and the food is fresh.

For Filipino home cooking, look for a carinderia: a small eatery with pots of prepared dishes, where you point and pay by portion for a plate of rice and one or two dishes. It is cheap, fast and usually good. In malls and restaurants, heritage restaurants such as those in Intramuros serve kare-kare, sinigang and lechon in seated, air-conditioned rooms for a higher price.

Breakfast is often a silog: garlic fried rice with an egg and a meat such as tapa (cured beef) or longganisa (sweet sausage). Snacks include taho (a warm soft tofu with syrup sold in the morning), fishballs and kwek-kwek (fried quail eggs) from street carts, and halo-halo, a shaved-ice dessert with sweet beans, fruit and milk that is the standard answer to the heat.

Drinks are cheap and strong. San Miguel and Red Horse are the local beers, Ginebra is the gin, and Tanduay the rum; calamansi juice and buko (young coconut) juice are the cool non-alcohol choices. Street food is safe if it is hot and busy; drink bottled water and skip ice from street stalls.

The Philippines has one of the longest Christmas seasons in the world. The "ber months" (September to December) bring lights and carols to malls, and from 16 December the Simbang Gabi dawn Masses begin. Christmas Eve is the main family meal, and traffic in Manila is at its worst in the fortnight before. If you come in December, plan around the weather and the queues.

Holy Week is the other great pause. On Maundy Thursday and Good Friday many restaurants, shops and sights close, the roads empty as people go to the provinces, and processions and penitential rites take place. Some travellers find the quiet pleasant; others find that half the city is shut. Check the date each year, since it moves with Easter.

The Feast of the Black Nazarene on 9 January draws millions to Quiapo for a procession of a dark wooden image of Christ, carried through the streets by barefoot devotees. It is one of the biggest religious gatherings in the country and it closes roads across the old city for the day. Visit Quiapo Church on another day if you want to see it without the crowd.

Chinese New Year is celebrated in Binondo with lion and dragon dances, firecrackers, red decorations and food stalls, and it is one of the best days to be in the district. Independence Day on 12 June and Rizal Day on 30 December bring wreath-laying and parades to Rizal Park, and All Saints' Day on 1 November sends families to the cemeteries with food and candles.

The rainy season, June to October, is not a festival but it sets the calendar: storms and typhoons can close sights, flood streets and cancel flights, so a flexible plan matters more than a fixed one. Around the city, the Giant Lantern Festival in San Fernando (Pampanga) in December is a popular day trip if you are in town then.

Daily life in Manila is organised by heat, traffic and floods. People leave early to avoid the worst of the commute, eat lunch late, and use malls as public space because they are cool, safe and close to transit. A visitor who copies this rhythm, with outdoor sights early and indoor ones at midday, will have an easier trip than one who tries to see everything between 10:00 and 15:00.

The jeepney is the everyday vehicle: a long open-backed bus with two benches, a fixed route painted on the side and a fare passed hand to hand toward the driver. The LRT and MRT carry the big commuter flows but are crowded at peak. Tricycles and pedicabs handle short hops in districts, and Grab has become the default for many people. Cars dominate, and the city has a number-coding scheme that bans private cars on certain days by plate number.

Filipinos are known for hospitality and a soft, indirect style. "Po" and "opo" are used with elders and officials, a smile is the normal answer to a request, and open anger is bad manners. English is widely spoken and Taglish, a mix of English and Tagalog, is used everywhere; a few words of Filipino, like salamat (thank you), are well received.

Family and faith organise the week. Sunday is for Mass and long family lunches, especially in malls and restaurants, and religious images appear in homes, jeepneys and shops. Remittances from Filipinos abroad support many households, and overseas work is a central fact of national life, which is why airports fill with families at Christmas.

For a visitor, the most useful habits are small ones: carry small notes, keep phones out of hand near roads, book rides by app, avoid walking through floodwater, and treat the mall as a place to rest. Manila does not always make itself easy, but it repays a plan and an early start.