Baguio, Province of Benguet, Cordillera Region, Philippines

🇵🇭 Baguio, officially the City of Baguio (Ilocano: Siudad ti Baguio; Tagalog: Lungsod ng Baguio), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines. It is known as the "Summer Capital of the Philippines", owing to its cool climate since the city is located approximately 4,810 feet (1,470 meters) above mean sea level, often cited as 1,540 meters (5,050 feet) in the Luzon tropical pine forests ecoregion, which also makes it conducive for the growth of mossy plants, orchids and pine trees, to which it attributes its other moniker as the "City of Pines".

Baguio was established as a hill station by the United States in 1900 at the site of an Ibaloi village known as Kafagway. It was the United States' only hill station in Asia.

Baguio is classified as a Highly-Urbanized City (HUC). It is geographically located within Benguet, serving as the provincial capital from 1901 to 1916, but has since been administered independently from the province following its conversion into a chartered city. The city is the centre of business, commerce, and education in northern Luzon, as well as the seat of government of the Cordillera Administrative Region.

Economy Baguio is the melting pot of different peoples and cultures in the Cordillera Administrative Region. Because of this, numerous investments and business opportunities are lured to the city. Baguio has a large retail industry, with shoppers coming to the city to take advantage of the diversity of competitively priced commercial products on sale. The city is also popular with bargain hunters. Some of the most popular bargaining areas include Baguio Market and Maharlika Livelihood Center. The city is home to numerous shopping centres and malls catering to increasing commercial and tourist activity; these include: SM City Baguio, Baguio Center Mall, Abanao Square, and Tiong San.

Various food and retail businesses run by local residents proliferate, forming a key part of Baguio's cultural landscape. Several retail outlets and dining outlets are situated along Bonifacio Street, Session Road, Teacher's Camp, Mines View Park and Baguio Fastfood Center near the market.

The areas of Session Road, Harrison Road, Magsaysay Avenue and Abanao Street comprise the trade centre of the city, where commercial and business structures such as cinemas, hotels, restaurants, department stores, and shopping centres are concentrated. The City Market offers a wide array of locally sourced goods and products, usually from Benguet province, which includes colorful woven fabrics and hand-strung beads to primitive wood carvings, cut flowers, strawberries and "Baguio" vegetables, the latter often denoting vegetable types that do well in the cooler growing climate. Strawberries and string beans—referred to as Baguio beans across the Philippines—are shipped to major urban markets across the archipelago.

Another key source of income for Baguio is its position as the economic hub of the Cordillera Administrative Region. The economy of the city has benefited from the vibrant mining industry in several towns of Benguet. Many agricultural goods produced in Benguet pass through Baguio for processing, sale or further distribution to the lowlands.

Industrial Baguio is one of the country's most profitable and best investment areas.

A Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA)-accredited business and industrial park called the Baguio City Economic Zone (BCEZ) is located in the southern part of the city between Camp John Hay Country Club and Philippine Military Academy in Barangay Loakan. Firms located in the BCEZ mostly produce and export knitted clothing, transistors, small components for vehicles, electronics and computer parts. Notable firms include Texas Instruments Philippines, which is the second largest exporter in the country. Other companies headquartered within the economic zone include Baguio Ayalaland Technohub, Moog Philippines, Inc., Linde Philippines, Inc., LTX Philippines Corporation, Texas Instruments Philippines, and Sitel Philippines, Baguio.

Outsourcing Outsourcing also contributes to the city's economy and employment. Sitel, whose main office is located in the Baguio City Economic Zone, is the largest BPO company in the city with four sites established within the BCEZ. There are also multiple BPOs present in the city with numerous PEZA-accredited private economic zones established to cater to this industry. The Ayala Technohub located in Camp John Hay hosts Cocentrix and InterContinental Hotels Group alongside other commercial establishments. Teleperformance Baguio and Thoughtfocus is established at the SM Cyberzone Building (also known as SM Fiesta Strip) located in front of Sunshine Park, while other call centres downtown are Optimum Transsource, Sterling Global and Global Translogic. Tech-Synergy operates a large transcription and back office operation near Wright park.

In recent years, there has been a surge of ESL (English as a Second Language) Tutorial Schools throughout Baguio that caters to students from other countries and also provide online services. This industry however has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic with foreign students returning to their home countries.

Universities The city houses eight major institutions of higher education. Baguio's first private school, Easter College, was set up in 1906 by the Rt. Rev. Charles Brent, who was a bishop of the Episcopalian Church.

The University of the Philippines, the country's premier state university, was established as an extension campus in Vigan, Ilocos Sur before transferring to Baguio in 1938. In 1961, it became a branch campus of UP Diliman, before finally becoming UP Baguio in 2002.

Saint Louis University, the largest university both in the city and in the north of Manila, catering to over 30,000 students, was founded by Belgian CICM missionaries in 1911 initially as a one-storey school for boys. It became a college in the 1950s before becoming a university in 1963. It currently has 4 campuses spread across the city.

Baguio Central University was found on 1945 as the Centro Academy by the Fernandez family. The following year, another educational institution, the University of the Cordilleras was established as the Baguio Colleges before becoming the Baguio Colleges Foundation; it became a full-fledged university in 2003. The University of Baguio was set up as the Baguio Technical and Commercial Institute in 1948 by the Bautista family; it was upgraded to university status in 1969.

Mainly a nursing and medical school, Pines City Colleges was founded in 1969 as the Pines City Doctors Hospital School of Nursing, three years after the opening of Pines City Doctors' Hospital in 1966.

The Philippine Military Academy, the country's military school, was originally founded in the Walled City of Intramuros in 1907, before relocating to Baguio in 1908 where it has been since.