The Philippines in my eyes - Manila BGC

Due to work, I need to go to the Philippines. Before going there, I wanted to know more about this country that I had only heard about in my ears. I searched for articles and videos on multiple online platforms, but it felt like I was scratching the surface and did not quench my thirst. I finally arrived in the Philippines and stayed there for more than 4 months, and gained a lot of experience. I want to write it down and share it with latecomers like me.

Talk about whatever comes to mind. It is not a serious article, it should be regarded as a personal statement. What impressed me most was the temperature here. Haha, look, there are two almost parallel lines at all times. You don’t need to make a fuss or be suspicious. They all think that this is a tropical country and it should be very hot. But no, it’s more comfortable than Guangzhou. I arrived in Manila from Guangzhou at the end of September. Coming out of the lobby of Guangzhou Airport is like entering a pool of humid and hot air. You will be covered in sweat if you don't move. But when we arrived in Manila, it was very comfortable. Even if you wear short-sleeved pants and keep walking, as long as you don't move too fast, you will only sweat slightly. Standing in the sun, I only feel a little bit of dryness, so be careful. Manila is surrounded by water from east to west, with Laguna Lake and Lamon Bay to the east, and Manila Bay and the South China Sea to the west. However, it is not humid, which is really strange when you think about it. It is said that there are only two seasons in a year, the dry season and the rainy season. There is less rain in the dry season, and it rains once a month, usually from October to March. This season also has cool days, 24-34 degrees, and the temperature couldn’t be better. Usually after washing the clothes, put them in the house and dry them in half a day. The rainy season is from April to September, which I haven’t experienced yet.

Let’s talk about food. BGC is Manila’s newest top business district. It is about 2 kilometers from east to west, north to south, and is not very big. Rich people from the Philippines and business people from China, Japan, Korea, Europe, the United States and Africa gather here. Therefore, the prices here are tailor-made for the rich, and are much more expensive than other places in Manila. Let’s talk about the ingredients in the supermarket. Look, desserts, drinks, puffed foods, various cheeses, ice cream, desserts, beef, pork, chicken, fish, and seafood are everywhere. Very few vegetables and no mutton. Especially the dishes that Chinese people like to eat are very expensive. Green peppers and broccoli are often at the top of the list of most expensive items, both costing nearly 20 yuan per pound. Green onions, rapeseed, and green vegetables also cost more than ten yuan a pound. Luffa, onions, potatoes, etc. are still priced at normal prices. Don’t believe it that fruits are much more expensive than in China. Grapes, oranges, apples, and pomegranates are five times more expensive than in China. There are cheap ones, such as locally produced bananas and papayas. Papayas only cost a few yuan a pound and are still fresh, unlike those in China that have a strange smell. A day's living expenses cost more than 100 RMB, and if you eat in a Chinese restaurant, it will be even more expensive. Because most of the Chinese people who come here are rich, so haha. There are several supermarkets in China, and the goods are all shipped by sea. It is normal for the prices to be twice as expensive as domestic ones. You can only buy hot pot ingredients, noodles, soy sauce, thirteen spices, peppercorns, melon seeds, etc. in Chinese supermarkets, not anywhere else.

By the way, there is only one residential complex in this business district, and it is a 4-star high-end one, Serendra. The others are all apartment buildings, that is, one building with roads on all sides. Maybe because this is a tropical country, the wall is very thin, less than 20 centimeters, haha, it seems to be just the width of a red brick. One layer of glass, poor sound insulation. Of course, high-end properties will be better, like Mega's Uptown Parksuit. Most of the houses are small and medium-sized, with one bedroom and one living room of 37 square meters, two bedrooms of 65 square meters, and three bedrooms of 90 square meters. These are all practical areas, not like domestic public apartments. Of course, the kitchen is not independent. Air conditioners are generally not the domestic ones with wall-mounted units, outdoor fans, and central ducts. It's a wall machine, haha, I've never seen it before. It's just a rectangular parallelepiped, with the face inside the room and the body and butt outside. If the frequency converter is okay, it is usually a hand-tightened one, like a TV that controls presbyopia. The electricity bill here is very expensive. A person costs more than 150 yuan a month to light the lights, turn on the air conditioner, cook, and take a bath. One unit of electricity costs 1.3 yuan. This is on the premise of not wasting it. Internet fees are also expensive, unlike domestic mobile Internet access that comes with home broadband. The monthly rent for mobile Internet access is about 130 yuan, with 10 megabytes of traffic, and you can make domestic calls and send text messages as you like. Home broadband, 50 MB, 230 yuan per month. Instead of using natural gas for cooking, there is an electric stove. There are two electric stoves with four hobs and an oven.

Those who are new here are definitely not used to this way of cooking. It only takes two minutes to heat it up, I can't stand it if I'm impatient. Some of them buy domestic high-power induction cookers or electric ceramic stoves from China.

Let’s talk about travel. Believe it or not, there are no buses here. You can drive a private car when you go out, or take a taxi if you don't have one. There is Grab here, which is similar to Didi in China. It usually costs 17 or 8 yuan for 2 kilometers, which is probably more expensive than in China. Therefore, the traffic here is also terrible. It is said that when there is no epidemic, it is normal to be stuck on the road for two hours when commuting to and from get off work, which can drive people crazy. The three major business districts are only 2 kilometers apart from each other, but you have to walk for more than half an hour to get there. Without the epidemic, it would have been longer. Fortunately, there are long jeeps in Manila called jeepneys, which are so noisy that when you step on the accelerator, it's like driving a diesel tractor. Look, listen, during commuting time, at every intersection, motorcycles are slowly interspersed and even surrounded by private cars. The scenes of trams blocking intersections at red light intersections in southern cities are replaced by motorcycles. Think about it. Each one of them looked like they didn't have a muffler installed. When the lights changed, it looked like a construction site. Each one of them made a loud fart, and because they were all high-rise buildings, the noise was surrounded by the buildings. The completed space is enlarged to the sky. So the apartment building is well insulated, but also very noisy.

The people here are not bad, they believe in Catholicism and have a gentle personality. Love singing and sports. The population is over 100 million, mostly young people. Young people like to ride racing cars and keep fit, and rich people like to keep dogs. What an interesting country.

The villa area is a different scene. Houses worth 60 to 70 million are concentrated in the village. They are all wealthy people. Living there must be a different experience.