The Savvy Shopper’s Choice Since 1594
By Cristina Espina

OUR thriving Tsinoy community traces its roots to trade. As early as the sixteenth century, Spanish settlers started taking advantage of the Philippines’s strategic proximity to China by encouraging Chinese investment and immigration. Soon, outer Manila’s Binondo area had become the country’s first Chinatown — and Galleon traders could not have been happier. Today, Binondo remains the biggest wholesale district in the entire country and a joy to modern yet equally savvy shoppers. And this is why even the most culturally or intellectually focused exploration of Chinatown must include some shopping!
        Despite being an integral part of Manila for 400 years, Binondo retains an exotic edge. In an age when malls are mushrooming all over the metro with the same merchandise in every store, there is still some old-world glamour in Binondo’s out-of-the-way specialty shops.
        New Victory Trading has been a Chinatown institution for over half a century.
Located on the corner of Ongpin and Salazar, it is best known for its traditional wedding items and mahjong sets. The company also offers Feng Shui consultations to interested patrons, as well as the I-Ching coins, laughing Buddhas, and golden fish figures that are among the more popular tools for good karma.
        For a fancier, if pricier, array of Chinoiserie, keep walking along Ongpin Street
to the Dragon Phoenix store near the Te Ya Kong Temple. It carries a dizzyingly wide product range, all of which is meant to bring health, wealth, and other forms of good luck to the buyer. Whether you want an oversized Buddha statue for your home, a lucky glass dragon for your office, or just a keychain that doubles as a protection amulet for when you are on the road, you’ll find it here. As expected, the store also provides its own Feng Shui services.
        At the very edge of Chinatown, on Soler Street, is the Arranque wet market, where most of the animals for sale count as either exotic food or exotic pets. Those with a taste for snakes, rabbits, or frogs may buy fresh meat here — and those willing
to adopt a monkey or a monitor lizard will find a new friend.
        There are also many little hole-in-the-wall stores scattered around Binondo
that are certainly worth the trouble it takes to find them. Only a short walk
from the historic Binondo church, New La Sympatica Commercial offers the same handmade, beaded tsinelas that the establishment has been selling since the prewar days. Although they may not bear the branded power of Havaianas or FitFlop, their old-fashioned charm has its own unique delight.
        But perhaps the best pasalubong to take home from Binondo is food. Here,
one can find many Chinese classics that have acquired a distinct Filipino flair.
 

Try the Eng Bee Tin store along the busy Ongpin Street, with signs that boast of the ‘Best Hopia’ in Chinatown. Indeed, this store pioneered the popular hopia ube, which is as Tsinoy as local delicacies get: a perfect hybrid of the traditional hopia (good cake) and the local haleyang ube (purple yam jam). The varieties of this innovation include ube-queso, ube-langka, ube-pinya, and ube-pastillas. Be sure to try the equally purple tikoy ube as well.
        Ho-Land Bakery on the corner of Nueva and Carvajal also has an excellent selection
of hopia, as well as ‘lite’ versions of the popular monggo and ube varieties. Eng Ho Bake Shop on Teodora Alonza Street, on the other hand, has put its own playful twist on old favorites such as heart-shaped mango-flavored tikoy and star-shaped mocha cake, and the small Shin Tai Shang Foods grocery store on Salazar Street has its own bakery
with delectable mochi cakes in several flavors.
        It would take a much longer article to celebrate Chinatown’s greatest successes as well as reveal its most closely guarded treasures — but nothing beats discovering Binondo for yourself. Find a good map, slip on a comfortable pair of shoes, and bring along an adventurous friend for a trip into history, culture, and shopping that both of you will never forget.

 

For more on Binondo
and the Chinese-Filipino community,
visit Bahay Tsinoy at 32 Anda
corner Cabildo Streets, Intramuros, Manila. Log on to www.bahaytsinoy.org.