Cebu City

Cebu City is a city on Cebu Island in the Philippines. It is known as the Queen City of the South. It is one of the most popular destinations in all of the Philippines for foreign tourists. It is the largest sea port in the nation, the second largest Air hub and the second largest city in the country. It is the fastest growing large city in the nation with an annual growth of over 5% per year.

Tourism continues to contribute much to the local economy, not just of the city itself, but to the entire province. Because of this, the city hosted the 1998 ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF). The city also hosted the East Asian Tourism Forum (EATOF) on August 2002, in which the province of Cebu is a member, and signatory.
On early 2007, one of the island's famous landmarks was formally reopened under a new name, Marco Polo Plaza, after more than two years of closure. The hotel complex was formerly occupied by Cebu Plaza which was the first deluxe hotel in the province. It opened in the early 1980s and was viewed by some as a symbol of the province's economic growth.

There are a number of shopping establishments in the city, the most popular of which are the SM City Cebu, Ayala Center Cebu, Robinsons Plaza and Gaisano Malls. There are also other smaller malls and stand-alone department stores. Throughout the years however, the establishment of "strip malls" which offers some sort of a town center environment have become the trend. Recent development and expansion of existing malls have also given the shoppers a new variety of choices in the city such as SM Cebu's "Northwing", a multi-level annex building with multilevel parking and Ayala Center Cebu's "Leisure Oasis", a development that consists of redefining Cebu's shopping experience through the newly re-designed Ayala Shopping complex.

Away from the city, is the Cebu Taoist Temple is a Daoist temple situated in Beverly Hills, a premier community within the city. The Philippine Taoist Temple gives a commanding view of Cebu City, and the nearby cities of Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu.

Cebu is a booming metropolitan area with all the conveniences of a modern city. At the same time, it boasts of natural resources like countless of white sand beaches (both commercial and untouched), as well as historical sites that reflect its cosmopolitan past: from the birth of Christianity in Asia, to early commercial trade with Mexico and China, to vestiges of the American colonization of the Philippines.