Things to do
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Binondo
Chinese merchants were settled here by the Spanish in 1594, which makes the district a candidate for the world's oldest Chinatown, and it still trades hard along Ongpin Street in gold, herbs and hopia. Food is the reason to come: fried siopao, kiampong, lumpia and dumpling houses that have run for generations. Sunday lunchtimes bring queues, and the lanes flood in heavy rain.
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Fort Santiago
Guarding the mouth of the Pasig at the northwest corner of Intramuros, the citadel served Spanish, American and Japanese garrisons in turn. Its cells held José Rizal before his execution in 1896, and a museum in the restored barracks traces his last days and final poem. Brass footprints mark the route he walked to the firing ground at Bagumbayan. Ticketed, and covered in an hour.
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Intramuros
Spain built this walled quarter in the late sixteenth century as the administrative heart of its Asian empire, and the bastions, gates and cobbled streets still define the bend of the Pasig. Bombing in 1945 destroyed almost all of it, so much of what stands is reconstruction around surviving stone. Bamboo bicycle tours and horse carriages work the main circuit; mornings are cooler for walking.
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Manila Baywalk
A palm lined promenade along Roxas Boulevard, the seafront draws its crowd in the last hour before dark, when the sun drops behind the ships anchored in the bay. Food carts, buskers and joggers work the paving. A dolomite sand beach laid along one stretch remains contested for its effect on the water, and swimming is prohibited.
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Manila Cathedral
Rebuilt eight times since 1581 after fires, earthquakes and war, the present Romanesque revival basilica dates from the 1950s and anchors Plaza Roma at the centre of Intramuros. Bronze doors, Roman mosaics and a Dutch pipe organ of several thousand pipes furnish it. Entry is free outside services, though weddings close the nave on many afternoons.
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National Museum of Fine Arts
Housed in the former legislative building on Padre Burgos Avenue, the gallery's centrepiece is Juan Luna's Spoliarium, a canvas that filled a wall at the Madrid exposition of 1884 and still dominates its hall. Rooms around it trace Philippine painting from colonial religious commissions to twentieth century modernism. Admission is free, and the natural history and anthropology museums stand in the same complex.
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Rizal Park
Laid out on the ground where José Rizal was shot, the park runs from Roxas Boulevard to the National Museum and functions as Manila's civic lawn: a flagpole, fountains, a relief map of the archipelago and the marble monument with its honour guard. A sound and light show plays some evenings. Crowds thicken at weekends and after office hours, when the lawns fill.
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San Agustin Church
Completed in 1607 and the only Intramuros building to survive the bombing intact, this Augustinian church carries a trompe l'oeil painted ceiling, a carved narra door and a monastery museum of colonial religious art. Weddings fill the nave on Saturdays, which limits quiet viewing. The adjoining cloister is ticketed separately and worth the extra time.