Welcome to Cebu City!
Cebu City is the main city on Cebu Island in the Philippines and is known as the Queen City of the South. It is the capital of Cebu Province, a transport hub, and a popular tourist destination in its own right.
Cebu is part of the country's second-largest large urban area, Metro Cebu, whose other main components are the cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu. This is a booming metropolitan area with all the conveniences of a modern city, as well as many of the problems of squalor, traffic, noise, and pollution. Cebu City is clearly the center of the urban region, though the other towns are far from insignificant.
The area has excellent transport links and is the main hub for travel in the central and southern Philippines either by sea or by air. Cebu City has the busiest seaport in the Philippines. Lapu-Lapu has the Mactan-Cebu International Airport with direct international flights and many domestic flights. It is far more traveler-friendly than the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Metro Manila.
Cebu City, officially the City of Cebu (Cebuano: Dakbayan Sa Sugbo, Tagalog: Lungsod ng Cebu), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Central Visayas region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 964,169 people, making it the sixth-most populated city in the nation and the most populous in the Visayas.
It is the regional center and primate city of Central Visayas and seat of government of the province of Cebu, but governed independently. The city and its metropolitan area exert influence on commerce, trade, industry, education, culture, tourism & healthcare beyond the region, over the entire Visayas, and partly over Mindanao. It is the Philippines' main domestic shipping port and is home to about 80% of the country's domestic shipping companies. The highest-ranked university outside Manila based on international rankings is located in Cebu City, the University of San Carlos, which is also the (disputed) oldest school in the country.
Cebu is bounded on the north by the town of Balamban and the city of Danao, on the west by the city of Toledo, on the east by the cities of Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue and the towns of Liloan, Consolacion and Compostela and on the south by the city of Talisay. Located at the center of the eastern seaboard of Cebu Island, it is the core city of Metro Cebu, the second largest metropolitan area in the Philippines by population & economy, which includes the cities of Carcar, Danao, Lapu-Lapu, Mandaue, Naga, and Talisay and the municipalities (towns) of Compostela, Consolacion, Cordova, Liloan, Minglanilla, and San Fernando. Metro Cebu had a total population of 2,849,213 as of 2015, making it the second-most populous metropolitan area of the nation, after Metro Manila in Luzon. The current political boundaries of the city are incorporated of the former municipalities of Cebu, San Nicolas, El Pardo, Mabolo, Talamban, and Banilad in the Commonwealth period. In the Precolonial period, the area of what is today Cebu was occupied by the Rajahnate of Cebu which was known to the Ming dynasty as the nation of Sokbu (束務). The capital of which was Singhapala (சிங்கப்பூர்) which is Tamil-Sanskrit for "Lion City", the same root words with the modern city-state of Singapore.
Cebu is the country's oldest city, it was the first Spanish settlement and the first capital of the Philippines. It officially became a city on April 27, 1594, through a Real provisión by Philip II of Spain, preceding all other Philippine cities except Manila. 343 years later, it was granted a new charter with an expanded territory by the National Assembly of the Philippines. Owing to its economic importance and influence in modern times, Cebu City is popularly called the Queen City of the South, a sobriquet assumed from Iloilo City after its economic decline in the mid-1900s.
The city is considered the birthplace of Christianity in the Far East. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cebu is currently the largest archdiocese in the Philippines and in Asia. Cebu Island has entered the list of Condé Nast Traveler's World's Best Islands rankings thrice: 2016, 2017, and 2019. The City and its island province are often marketed as a single tourist destination, combining natural countryside scenery with urban attractions including cultural-historical sites and developing infrastructure. Tourism is one of the most important industries in the city, it remains one of the most visited in the country by both domestic and foreign visitors.
Cebu City was recognized by the British Council as the Creative Capital of the Philippines. In 2019, it joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network as a City of Design.