Cebu City

TO TRULY know about Cebu City is to learn that the beaches, as well as the mountains, are thirty-minute drives away from the bustling city center. This perhaps is the driving force that dictates how life is lived in this city of almost a million people.

Cebuanos pride themselves as one of the country's most laid-back people. Life here is at a slower mode. Half of the working population still makes it back to their homes for lunch, and clothes are still made by the neighborhood custorera. The city is still achingly provincial in many ways, but then locals won't have it any other way. The rat race is not in anyone's vocabulay ・just ask the many expatriate workers on how things go among the Cebuano workforce. But if this is just what your doctor order, then Cebu is definitely for you. This is a stress-free zone, where the day's tensions are most likely caused by hanggling over a bag of kalamansi from Php30 to Php25 from a street vendor, and the incessant honking of car horns from dawn to dusk.

Expect the Cebuanos to truly enjoy what nature has bestowed them. A typical Sunday is a family trek to the many public beaches. Another favorite pastime is those night drives to some of the lookouts high up the chilly Busay mountains for a truly magnificent view of the city's night-lights.

Food is another passion among the Cebuanos, where a meal can be a moveable feast of grilled pork or chicken and puso (hanging rice) enjoyed amid a din of thick smoke and burning meat in a fully-packed corner stall set up by an enterprising few, whose charcoal and a few plastic chairs with tables.

On the other hand, Cebu is also a vibrant city, with a creative energy that can very well rival other metropolises. The furniture and fashion accessories manufacturers are well respected in all the major global markets. The level and quality of production that these two industries maintain are perhaps a portion of the driving force that imparts style to the local inhabitats.

As a fledgling metropolis, Cebuanos enjoy an urbane lifestyle with a dynamic selection of restaurant offering international cuisine, several Macdonalds and KFCs going shoulder to shoulder with the numerous barbecue stands; four major shopping centers and several secondary ones; a landscape of tall buildings at the city's commercial center, a swinging club scene and a cafe society that is alive and well. The cultural scene boasts of two active organizations, the Cebu Arts Council, and the Peace Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as several smaller performing and visual arts group. Together, they bring in regular performances and exhibits from here and abroad.

The City truly comes alive during carnival time --the annual Sinulog that falls on every third Sunday of January. A mixture of religious festivities and the pagan Mardi-gras, this celebration can start as early as the Christmas season, where locals festoon their homes for the holiday, and will not take it off until after the Sinulog.

Geographically, the island of Cebu is 562 kilometers south of the capital city, Manila, in the middle of the north-south axis of the country's 7,700 islands. The main island of Cebu and its satelite islands of Bantayan, Camotes, Mactan and Malapascua comprise the Province of Cebu, with the capital city being Cebu City.

Cebu City itself has long been a center for maritime trading. With its central location, sea vessels from the Far East easily intermingled with Chinese sampans and Malayan vintas all in the spirit of commerce. With the advent of Spnish colonization, Cebu's reputation as a bustling commercial center was assured, and continued for quite a time, until the Spanish rules eventually moved their resources to Manila, creating a new capital city.

Nevertheless, colonial Cebu thrived to its present state. The city wharf has expanded to accommodate more than three hundred thousand containers at any given month, testimony to the dynamic movement of goods in both directions. The people, it's most precious asset, have not remained stagnant either. It embraced globalization long before its cousins to the north. An aggressive marketing effort brought fort an international airport that currently supports four foreign carriers in addition to several local flights. Cebu is initiated a push for more tax-free export processing zones that eventually bore fruit with one of the most successful export-processing zone in the island of Mactan.

The introduction of foreign capital has contributed much to the shape of the city today, where the constant flow of currency has energized the real estate and leisure market to unprecedented heights. Today, Cebu City has truly lived up to its famous name as the Queen City of the South.

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