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The City of Vigan (Ilocano: Dak-ili ti Bigan; Tagalog: V?gan; 獰�略�, Hokkien (Pe?h-?e-j?): Biga; Mandarin

Chinese (Pinyin): M?ian) is a 5th class city in the province of Ilocos Sur, Philippines. It is the capital of the

Province of Ilocos Sur. The city is located on the western coast of the large island of Luzon, facing the South

China Sea.

It is a World Heritage Site in that it is one of numerous Hispanic towns in the Philippines, and is well-known for

its cobblestone streets, and a unique architecture that fuses Philippine building design, and construction with

colonial European architecture.

According to the latest Philippines census, it has a population of 47,246 people in 9,193 households.

Former Philippine president Elpidio Quirino, the 6th president of the Philippines, is born in Vigan, at the current

location of the Provincial Jail (his father was a warden); and resided in the Syquia Mansion.

The area of Vigan was originally a settlement of traders coming from the Fujian Province, China. At the time of

Spanish colonisation, the Chinese settlers, whose language was Southern Fujianese (Min Nan, often referred

to as "Hokkien" by most Filipinos), referred to the area as "Bee Gan" (獰�略� ; Mandarin pinyin: M?i An), which

means "Beautiful Shore." Since the Castillian and Basque Spanish conquistadors interchanged V and the B to

refer to the B sound, they spelled the Hokkien Chinese name "Bee Gan" (獰�略�) as "Vigan", which is the name

used to this day.

Vigan's Chinese heritage is still evident from the numerous elite Chinese creole families who come from the

 area, many of whom adopted Hispanic family names. Others, such as the Sy-Quia family, have retained

Chinese-derived surnames, though most, if not all, of the Christian Chinese creole families fully Hispanicised

themselves culturally.

The most commonly known source of the city's name is from the Biga'a plant, which once grew abundantly

along the banks of the Meztiso River, from which captain Juan de Salcedo derived the city's name

 (after a misunderstanding with the locals, thinking he was asking the name of the plants).