Where is Manila? Come inside & See!

Where is Manila?

Manila lies at the mouth of the Pasig River, on the eastern shores of Manila Bay, which is on the western side of the largest island, Luzon. Manila lies about 950 kilometers southeast of Hong Kong and 2,400 kilometers northeast of Singapore.

The Pasig River bisects the city in the middle. Almost all of the city, has been built on top of centuries of prehistoric alluvial deposits built up 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 Intramuros. Intramuros is the original walled-city of Manila. 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.

Manila is bordered by several municipalities and cities in Metro Manila:

  • Navotas City

  • Caloocan City

Both of these cities lie to the north.

  • Quezon City – to the northeast.

  • San Juan City - to the east.

  • Mandaluyong City - to the east.

  • Makati City – to the southeast.

  • Pasay City – to the South.

Manila City itself is divided into 16 geographical districts. Only one district was not an original town and that is Port Area. The eight districts north of the Pasig are

  • Binondo

  • Quiapo

  • Sampaloc

  • San Miguel

  • San Nicolas

  • Santa Cruz

  • Santa Mesa

  • Tondo

The eight districts south of the Pasig River are

  • Ermita

  • Intramuros

  • Malate

  • Paco

  • Pandacan

  • Port Area

  • San Andres

  • Santa Ana

San Andres was previously part of Santa Ana, and Santa Mesa, once a part of Sampaloc.

All of these districts, with the exception of Port Area, have their own churches, and several of the these districts have achieved recognition in their own right.

The district of Binondo is the city's Chinatown.

Tondo is the poorest district.

While the districts of Ermita and Malate are well-known and popular with tourists, having many bars, restaurants, five-star hotels, and shopping malls.

The Pasig River is crossed by a number of bridges in Manila.

Traveling east they are Roxas Bridge (commonly referred to as the Del Pan Bridge), Jones Bridge, McArthur Bridge, Quezon Bridge, Ayala Bridge, Nagtahan Bridge (also known as Mabini Bridge), Pandacan Bridge, and Lambingan Bridge.


The regional maps on this page and the specific regional pages are subject to the following clause:

Copyright (c) 2004 CBD Finance Pty Limited. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".


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