LUNETA PARK

LUNETA PARK

Also known as Rizal Park, Luneta is one of the city’s premier attraction being the most famous park in the country. From its former name bagumbayan (new town) wherein Philippine’s national hero Jose Rizal was executed last 1896, Luneta is a great place of historic archives like the execution of the Gomburza in 1872, official proclamation of the country being a fully independent republic in 1946, a mass was held here by Pope John Paul in 1995, and the opening and closing of the 2005 Southeast Asian Games.

In Luneta, you’ll find Quirino Grandstand, the Chinese and Japanese Gardens, the main office of the Department of Tourism, the National Museum, National Library, Orchidarium, Planetarium, Butterfly Pavilion, an open air auditorium and a chess plaza.

Luneta has been a place for families to enjoy picnics during sundays and holidays. Thousands or even hundreds of thousands of tourists both local and foreign visits Luneta monthly.

One good trivia here is that the flagpole located in front of the Rizal monument is the kilometre zero which means it is the starting point for all

PLACES TO GO AT LUNETA PARK

Rizal Park is in the midst of Manila's hustle and bustle of a concrete jungle stands Rizal Park. A tribute to the country's national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, it marks the spot where Rizal, accused by the Spanish authorities of leading the insurrection, was executed by a firing squad. Luneta (as it is commonly called) is a refuge for early morning jogger and tai-chi practitioners. At night, the park is transformed into a romantic rendezvous for lovers. . Apart from its grassy expanse, Luneta also features a planetarium, dozens of fountains, an amphitheatre, a children's playground, a skating rink and the Chinese and Japanese gardens. Direction::Cnr. Padre Faura, Ermita, Manila




Chinese Gardens are found within Rizal Park. The Japanese Gardens are also found within Rizal Park, is authentic but in miniature. It was developed to promote friendship and mutual understanding between the Japanese and Filipino people.













Right into the heart of the capital Manila lies Luneta Park or Rizal Park, which marks the Kilometer Zero of the Philippines and the northern tip of Roxas Boulevard, overlooking Manila Bay. Built in the early 1700s, the park was the site of some of the turning points in Philippine history such as the execution of the national hero Jose Rizal and the declaration of the Philippine independence from USA.

The Rizal Monument ca be found right in front of the park, which has become its famous symbol. The bronze statue, made in Switzerland and remodeled by national artist Juan Nakpil, is famously protected by the Kabalyeros de Rizal (Knights of Rizal) who do not move all-day or all-night long. It is also considered as the most-pictured site of the park.

Nowadays, the park is a favorite place for dating and for family picnics because of its spacious grassy lawns and open-air concert hall that features live entertainment and music. The park also has a chess plaza, a skating rink, fountains, and playgrounds. Every Sunday morning, Filipino martial artists use the park to practice eskrima, a traditional martial arts form.

Rizal Park, also known as Luneta Park or colloquially Luneta, is a historical urban park located in the heart of the city of Manila, Philippines, adjacent to the old walled city of Manila, now Intramuros. Since the Spanish Colonial Era, the park has been a favorite spot for unwinding, socializing, an urban oasis for family picnics on Sundays and holidays. It is one of the major tourist attractions of Manila.
Located along Manila Bay, Luneta has been the site of some of the most significant moments in Philippine history. The execution of pacifist Dr. José Rizal on December 30, 1896, sparked the fire of the Philippine Revolution against the Spanish colonizers, elevating the martyr as the national hero of the country. The park was officially renamed Rizal Park in his honor and his monument serves as the symbolic focal point of the park. The Declaration of Philippine Independence from American rule was held here on July 4, 1946 as well as the political rallies of Ferdinand Marcos and Corazon Aquino in 1986 that led to the EDSA Revolution deposing the dictator.

Boracay Island | Beach Capital of the Philippines

Explore Boracay Beaches. We are your guide! Boracay Island in the Philippines is paradise for certified beach and sun-worshippers around the world. Hailed by Yahoo Travel and BMW Tropical Beach Handbook as one of the world's best beaches, Boracay continues to entice beach loving tourists to its sun bleached shores of powder-soft white sands that never get hot even in the afternoon sun. Boracay Island has more than a dozen beaches and many coves. The most famous and popular  boracay beach is the almost four kilometres long White Beach, which has been named several times as one of the best beaches in the world. Most of the foreign tourists who had been here have made Boracay their yearly destination. Others have chosen to live on this haven. Boracay Island is located approximately 350 kilometers south of Manila, Philippines. The island is a short distance off the north-western tip of Panay Island, which is in the western Visayas in the Philippines.  Boracay Island is about seven kilometres long and its narrowest point barely 1 kilometer wide, comprising an area of 1,083 hectares. While the fine white sand beaches and the crystal clear cool  waters of Boracay Island provide the main attraction, the possibilities for pleasure and adventure in this enchanting paradise are as seemingly endless. There is a wonderful array of attractions on Boracay Island to keep you busy exploring for days and nights. Boracay is really a place you have to experience yourself.

Rice Terraces

Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras

Brief Description

For 2,000 years, the high rice fields of the Ifugao have followed the contours of the mountains. The fruit of knowledge handed down from one generation to the next, and the expression of sacred traditions and a delicate social balance, they have helped to create a landscape of great beauty that expresses the harmony between humankind and the environment.

The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras is an outstanding example of an evolved, living cultural landscape that can be traced as far back as two millennia ago in the pre-colonial Philippines. The terraces are located in the remote areas of the Philippine Cordillera mountain range on the northern island of Luzon, Philippine archipelago. While the historic terraces cover an extensive area, the inscribed property consists of five clusters of the most intact and impressive terraces, located in four municipalities.  They are all the product of the Ifugao ethnic group, a minority community that has occupied these mountains for thousands of years.

The five inscribed clusters are; (i) the Nagacadan terrace cluster in the municipality of Kiangan, a rice terrace cluster manifested in two distinct ascending rows of terraces bisected by a river; (ii) the Hungduan terrace cluster that uniquely emerges into a spider web; (iii) the central Mayoyao terrace cluster which is characterized by terraces interspersed with traditional farmers’ bale (houses) and alang (granaries); (iv) the Bangaan terrace cluster in the municipality of Banaue that backdrops a typical Ifugao traditional village; and (v) the Batad terrace cluster of the municipality of Banaue that is nestled in amphitheatre-like semi-circular terraces with a village at its base. 

The Ifugao Rice Terraces epitomize the absolute blending of the physical, socio-cultural, economic, religious, and political environment.  Indeed, it is a living cultural landscape of unparalleled beauty.

The maintenance of the living rice terraces reflects a primarily cooperative approach of the whole community which is based on detailed knowledge of the rich diversity of biological resources existing in the Ifugao agro-ecosystem, a finely tuned annual system respecting lunar cycles, zoning and planning, extensive soil conservation, mastery of a most complex pest control regime based on the processing of a variety of herbs, accompanied by religious rituals.

Criterion (iii): The rice terraces are a dramatic testimony to a community's sustainable and primarily communal  system of rice production, based on harvesting water from the forest clad mountain tops and creating stone terraces and ponds, a system that has survived for two millennia.

Criterion (iv): The rice terraces are a memorial to the history and labour of more than a thousand generations of small-scale farmers who, working together as a community, have created a landscape based on a delicate and sustainable use of natural resources.

Criterion (v): The rice terraces are an outstanding example of land-use that resulted from a harmonious interaction between people and its environment which has produced a steep terraced landscape of great aesthetic beauty, now vulnerable to social and economic changes

Historical Description

The rice terraces of the Cordilleras are the only monuments in the Philippines that show no evidence of having been influenced by colonial cultures. Owing to the difficult terrain, the Cordillera tribes are among the few peoples of the Philippines who have successfully resisted any foreign domination and have preserved their authentic tribal culture. The history of the terraces is intertwined with that of its people, their culture, and their traditional practices.
The terraces, which spread over five present-day provinces, are the only form of stone construction from the pre-colonial period. The Philippines alone among south-east Asian cultures is a wholly wood-based one: unlike Cambodia, Indonesia, or Thailand, for example, in the Philippines both domestic buildings and ritual structures such as temples and shrines were all built in wood, a tradition that has survived in the terrace hamlets.
It is believed that terracing began in the Cordilleras some two thousand years ago, though scholars are not in agreement about the original purpose for which it was employed. It is evidence of a high level of knowledge of structural and hydraulic engineering on the part of those who built the terraces. The knowledge and practices, supported by rituals, involved in maintaining the terraces are transferred orally from generation to generation, without written records. Taro was the first crop when they began to be used for agriculture, later to be replaced by rice, which is the predominant crop today..

The Chocolate Hills

The Chocolate Hills are probably Bohol's most famous tourist attraction. They look like giant mole hills, or as some say, women's breasts, and remind us of the hills in a small child's drawing. Most people who first see pictures of this landscape can hardly believe that these hills are not a man-made artifact. However, this idea is quickly abandoned, as the effort would surely surpass the construction of the pyramids in Egypt. The chocolate hills consist of are no less than 1268 hills (some claim this to be the exact number). They are very uniform in shape and mostly between 30 and 50 meters high. They are covered with grass, which, at the end of the dry season, turns chocolate brown. From this color, the hills derive their name. At other times, the hills are green, and the association may be a bit difficult to make.

Legend has it that the hills came into existence when two giants threw stones and sand at each other in a fight that lasted for days. When they were finally exhausted, they made friends and left the island, but left behind the mess they made. For the more romantically inclined is the tale of Arogo, a young and very strong giant who fell in love with an ordinary mortal girl called Aloya. After she died, the giant Arogo cried bitterly. His tears then turned into hills, as a lasting proof of his grief.
However, up to this day, even geologists have not reached consensus on how they where formed. The most commonly accept theory is that they are the weathered formations of a kind of marine limestone on top of a impermeable layer of clay. If you climb the 214 steps to the top of the observation hill near the complex, you can read this explanation on a bronze plaque.

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