Binondo is one of the great Chinatowns of Asia — not because it is well-preserved or photogenic in the usual way, but because it is genuinely alive. Streets choked with delivery tricycles, wholesale warehouses stacked to the ceiling with dried goods and cooking supplies, dim sum restaurants at 7am full of people who eat here because it's good and cheap.
The food is the main event. Fried pork dumplings, oyster omelette, hand-made noodle soups, hopia (bean-paste pastries), fresh lumpia, and the kind of cheap Chinese cooking that keeps a very large community fed and content. Walk the main streets around Ongpin Street for restaurants and bakeries, then wander into the residential blocks behind. The Binondo Church at the centre has stood since 1596. The area is safely walkable in daylight.