Chinatown Manila Philippines

As early as the 10th century, a lively trade has been going on between itinerant merchants coasting along the China Sea and the river bank dwellers of the Pasig River. At the northern bank of this river sprang a thicker-and-woods village where a community of Chinese lived peaceably among the Tagalogs when the Spaniards came. The village was called Binundok, a tagalog term for hilly terrain, but the Spaniards, perpetuating a corruption of its name, referred to it as Isla de Binondo (Isle of Binondo).