Located 212 kilometers north of Manila, Dagupan City is found on the north-central coast of Pangasinan Province. It is bounded on the north by Lingayen Gulf, on the east by the town of Mangaldan, on the south by Calasiao and on the west by the town of Binmaley. It covers an area of 37 square kilometers most of which are wetlands. During the great earthquake of 1991, much of Dagupan was devastated but it was soon rehabilitated.

Main thoroughfares are A. B. Fernandez Avenue, Perez Boulevard, and Burgos Street.

Majority of the population speak Pangalatok while Ilocano and Tagalog are the dialect of the minority. English is widely used as a second language. Roman Catholics outnumber other religious groups such as Iglesia Ni Cristo, Aglipayans, Evangelicals, and Moslems.

Although Dagupan is second only to San Carlos City in terms of population among the four cities of Pangasinan, it is considered as the commercial center of the whole province. Although much of the city is considered urbanized, many of the city's barangays are devoted to farming and aquaculture. The city is famous for milkfish or Bangus. In fact, its bangus is branded as Dagupan Bangus. To further promote its bangus industry, the city celebrates the Bangus Festival on the last week of April. Activities during this annual celebration includes 101 ways to cook bangus, parade of bangus floats, bangus dance contest, and more.

As part of the Bangus Festival, the city showcased the world's longest barbecue grill measuring 1007.56 meters in 2003. In it was grilled 10,000 pieces of milkfish. This feat is now enshrined in Guiness World Book of Records

Being the eductional center of Pangasinan, Dagupan is home to 3 universities and 12 colleges.

Dagupan Golf and Beach Club

As the trading and educational center of the province, Dagupan is an ideal location for businesses wanting to tap the Pangasinan market of more than two million people. Moreover, many towns are less than two hours away from Dagupan including the capital town of Lingayen thus forming an unofficial metropolitan area of more than a million population. Considering this demographic factor, the real estate industry which include tourism facilities has a bright future in Dagupan. In agribusiness, one should consider investing in food processing, feed milling, fertilizer production, commercial seed production, and farm implement manufacturing. More investment in the Bangus industry is needed to develop it further for the export market. The presence of many institutions of higher learning would help facilitate the development of technology-related ventures such as business process outsourcing, call center, animation, graphic design, and software development.

1. Bonuan Blue Beach
2. MacArthur Park
3. Japan-Philippines Friendship Garden
4. Shrine of the Unknown Soldier

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Visit also : Alaminos City, San Carlos City, Urdaneta