MANILA: 7,000 Times More Musical

“Manila mirrors the best of this country's 7,000 times more islands. A few minutes away from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the Fiesta Duty Free Shop in Paranaque City is Nayong Pilipino featuring the country's famous landmarks in miniature.”

The capital of the Philippines - its heart and soul -- is Manila. It sets the rhythm of life in this archipelago and is a pulsating hub that blends the Oriental with the Occidental, the quaint with the modern, the mundane with the extraordinary.

Manila was born out of the ashes of a once flourishing Malay settlement by the banks of the Pasig River. In 1571, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi established the Ever Loyal City of Manila which, until 1898, was the seat of Spanish colonial rule in Asia. He built the city within walls and called it Intramuros. An anchor tourist destination, Manila is the very core of the 7,000 times more islands that make up the Philippines. It is a center for the performing arts in Asia.

Manila has since expanded beyond Intramuros to become the nucleus of the country’s largest metropolis, Greater Manila, made up of 11 other cities and five towns. But before it spread out of its confines, history saw Manila figuring prominently in the Galleon Trade, the first trans-Pacific commerce between Asia, America and Europe for some 250 years.