Manila

'''Currently a work in progress. Tropers who are (A) Filipino, (B) are living in Manila, or (C) had visited Manila are free to contribute.'''

Manila, the capital of the Philippines and the "City by the Bay", other than Good ol' Frisco

Manila was once a decadent Muslim Kingdom ruled by the great Raja Sulayman, and was a mercantile power in the far east, trading with China, Japan, and the Malays. Well, until the Spaniards came. Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, conquistador

When people refer to Manila, they do not usually mean the city itself, but the whole metropolitan area of sixteen cities that form Metro Manila (officially the National Capital Region), of which Manila is a part of.

A Notable feature of Manila is that it virtually lack a downtown district or a city center, almost all of the main urban hubs and Government offices are peppered around the city like raisins on a bun. Architects and urban planners often cite Manila as one of the worst examples of improper urban planning in the world, and the effects are detrimental: It suffers from flooding, heavy traffic, pollution, and ugliness, and a century of changing governments and leaders are to blame.

When the Americans came to the Philippines, what was considered to be Manila only comprised of a small fortified city situated south of the Pasig river, and a small number of settlements that encircled the citadel, making it a tabula rasa for the Americans to plan and construct, with Daniel Burnham, the guy who designed the roads of Chicago, was put in charge.

Burnham designed post-Spanish Manila similar to Washington DC: the government center was built surrounding an open park like the National Mall; the chosen location was Bagumbayan, because this is where the hero Jose Rizal was Martyred.

However, the Philippine President, Manuel L. Quezon, out of fear that being close to the bay makes Manila very vulnerable to an attack, ordered the construction of new city 30 kilometers away from Manila. The Government purchased a large amount of land encompassing Novaliches and Diliman from the Tuazon Family, and designed th

The Component Cities of Metropolitan Manila
Manila - the oldest and the foremost of all.
 * Intramuros - the old Manila during the Spanish period, which was heavily fortified by walls and bulwarks. Although many of the buildings, churches and schools it once housed are now lost, it still remains as one of the centers of activity within the Matropolis, with tourism as it's main draw. The government is now on the process of rebuilding some of the important structures lost during the Second World War and declare it as a heritage district.
 * Ermita - the area immediately outside of Intramuros. It was once home of many government offices and facilites, until the creation of Quezon City.
 * Malate - the area south of Ermita beginning from Pedro Gil St to Pablo Ocampo (Vito Cruz) St, and the main tourist and entertainment hub of the city. During the American Period, it was envisioned to become an upscale residential community of American expatriates, but post-war reconstruction took advantage of it's prominent location by the bay and became and entertainment district. Malate boasts of many hotels, nightclubs and discos, with huge neon signs enough to rival Malibu and Las Vegas sans the gambling. Manila's long promenade, called the Baywalk stretches two kilometers along Malate's west side.
 * Paco - a mainly middle-class residential area immediately east of Ermita. Paco comes from the word Paco de Dilao, Spanish for "Yellow Amarillo", pigment producing plants which grew abundantly in the area. During the Spanish Era, it was the primary settlement of Japanese travelers in the Philippines, although they did not remain there permanently like the Chinese did at Binondo.
 * Pandacan
 * San Andres Bukid - a middle class residential area east of Malate which is bordered by the city of Makati in the east.
 * Tondo - the polar opposite of Malate, Tondo is Manila's highly infamous version of a skid row, where crime abounds day and night. Most of the residents of Tondo belong to the lower-middle class up to the downright impoverished, most of which has no day job. After the war, it became a center of mobsters and organized crime syndicates who fought against each other for control of the area. Nowadays very much the same, except that the mobsters were replaced with hipster teens who pretended they were niggas.
 * Puerto de Manila - or the Port Area. Straddles the area from Smokey Mountain (a garbage dump - turned housing project) west of Tondo then crosses the river to end at the Anda Circle just outside Intramuros. The two dockport areas north and south of the Pasig river were aptly called North Harbor and South Harbor, with civil transport and domestic cargo in the former and international cargo designated in the latter.
 * Binondo - the first Chinatown in the world, existing even before the concept of a Friendly Local Chinatown was established. Originally called Parian, it was the settlement area designated by the Spanish Government in 1594 for the Chinese traders who frequented Manila during the years of the Galleon trade because non-Christians are not permitted access in the walled citadel (Intramuros), and was proximate enough for the Spanish to keep an eye on things (at least two cannons in Intramuros are always pointed at Parian should an uprising occur.) Owing to the Genre Savvy Chinese living in the area, the place became a bustling area of trade and commerce that still continues up to this day.
 * Quiapo - a market district and the melting pot of all cultures in Manila, Quiapo is the location of two important sites of worship for Christians and Muslims alike: The Basilica of the Black Nazarene, which houses an icon of Jesus Christ highly revered by Filipino Catholics, and the Golden Mosque of Manila.
 * Santa Mesa
 * Santa Ana
 * Sampaloc - east of Quiapo, this is where a fair number of Universities in Maila are found.

Quezon City - originally slated to be called "New Manila" and replace the capital city, it quite didn't catch on and
 * Diliman
 * Cubao - a major business and entertaiment district,
 * Commonwealth
 * Balintawak
 * Fairview

Makati -
 * Ayala Triangle - is to the Philippines as Wall Street is to New York. The Ayala Triangle is the chief financial district of the Philippines and home to the Philippine Stock Exchange and the main offices of many international and local companies.
 * Guadalupe

Taguig -
 * Bonifacio Global City - was once Fort Andres Bonifacio, the headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The Army base was then subsequently reduced, and the land was sold to the Ayala Corporation to develop into a mixed-use urban dwelling and business district.

Pasay - it shares with the nearby city of Paranaque th complex of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, which serves the area of Manila.
 * Asiana City
 * Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex
 * Mall of Asia complex