Manila CBD's: ORTIGAS

The topmost photo is the best shot of Ortigas that I've found in the web; it has a major defect though:  not up-to-date enough, it doesn't show the four 60-plus storey towers of Shangrila in the right corner and some other mostly 40-plus storey new towers. I used it anyway because the photo composition captured the sleek essence of the CBD: a First World oasis, like all Manila's post-WWII CBD's, in a still Third World metropolis.

Ortigas Center is the second wealthiest CBD in Manila (next to Makati, but the two are in danger of being eclipsed by the fast-developing Fort Bonifacio, envisioned as even more modern than the first two). Just 3 kilometers to the north of Makati along the main metropolitan highway, EDSA, Ortigas is located in a more central location, directly connected to the teeming residential enclaves of eastern Mega Manila via Ortigas Avenue and the congested residential districts of the old city via Shaw Boulevard. This centrality most likely accounts for the fact that its malls are the most profitable in the city- the SM Megamall being the top income generator in the entire SM retail empire throughout the whole country.