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MANILA
The City of Manila
(Lungsod ng Maynila), or simply Manila,
is the capital of the Philippines and one of the municipalities
that comprise Metro Manila. The city is located on the eastern
shore of Manila Bay in Luzon,
the country's largest island.
Manila
is the hub of a thriving metropolitan area home to over 10 million
people. The National Capital Region (NCR), where the City of
Manila is a part, is a much bigger metropolis consisting of 17
cities and municipalities.
Manila
is the second most populous city proper in the Philippines, with
more than 1.5 million inhabitants. Only nearby Quezon
City, Philippines' former capital, is more populous. Manila
is currently included in the roster of global or world cities of
the world.
Manila
got its name from "may nilad",
Tagalog for "there is nilad,"
in reference to the flowering mangrove plant that grew on the
marshy shores of the bay. In the 16th century, Manila (then Maynilad)
grew from an Arab settlement on the banks of the Pasig
River into the seat of the colonial government of Spain
when it controlled the Philippine Islands for over three centuries
from 1565 to 1898. Beginning in 1898, the
United States of America occupied and controlled the city
and the Philippine archipelago until 1946.
During World War II, much of
the city was destroyed. The Metropolitan Manila region was enacted
as an independent entity in 1975.
Today, the city and the metropolis thrive as an important cultural
and economic center. However, overpopulation, traffic congestion,
pollution, and crime challenge the city.
Manila
has been classified as a "Gamma" global
or world city by the Globalization and World Cities Study
Group and Network.
Manila
lies at the mouth of the Pasig River
on the eastern shores of Manila Bay,
which is on the western side of Luzon.
It lies about 950 kilometers southeast of Hong
Kong and 2,400 kilometers northeast of Singapore.
The river bisects the city in the middle. Almost all of the city
sits on top of centuries of prehistoric alluvial deposits built by
the waters of the Pasig River and on some land reclaimed from
Manila Bay. The layout of the city was haphazardly planned during
Spanish Era as a set of communities surrounding the original
Spanish Era walled city of Manila, called Intramuros.
Intramuros is one of the oldest walled cities in the far east.
During the American Period, some semblance of city planning using
the architectural designs by Daniel Burnham, was done on the
portions of the city south of the Pasig River.
- City
planning projects did not stop at Chicago though; Burnham
helped shape cities such as Cleveland (the Group Plan), San
Francisco, Washington, DC (the McMillan Plan), and Manila and
Baguio in the Philippines, details of which appear in The
Chicago Plan publication of 1909.**
Manila
is bordered by several municipalities and cities in Metro Manila:
Navotas and Caloocan City to the north, Quezon City to the
northeast, San Juan City and Mandaluyong City to the east, Makati
City to the southeast, and Pasay City to the south.
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