|Home|

How to Have Fun in Taiwan’s Night Markets

 Whitney Yen

       What is the best known place in Taiwan? Is it the Palace Museum? Or is it the Taipei 101 Building? Yes, they are both very famous. But there are other places where you can experience the culture of Taiwan and eat a lot of delicious food as well. They are Taiwan’s night markets! What is even better is that there are numerous night markets in Taiwan. You can easily find one and I am sure you will love Taiwan’s night markets after visiting them. The followings are the steps that you can take to have fun there.

You can start your journey of a night market with authentic Taiwanese food as the beginning. It will be very hard for you to decide what to eat because the food in a night market is a feast for the eyes. Even Taiwanese people need to ponder what to have. Would you like to try some “Stinky Tofu”? This is fried tofu with some Chinese pickled vegetable, which is a popular side dish here. Honestly speaking, it does not smell so good, but you might love its taste after trying it. Next, you can try “Fruit on a Stick”. The vendor chooses some fruit, most of which are tomatoes, to thread it onto sticks and then sugar-coat it. I bet you will be crazy about it after giving it a try, because you cannot resist the flavor with sour and sweet, like the feeling of being in love. Then, you need to get the most famous and the most desirable drink in Taiwan – “Bubble Tea”. Everyone loves it, so you must try it when you find it.

After devouring a lot of delicious food, it is time to take a look at many fantastic things and people in a night market. You will see a man sitting behind a table and two white little birds are pecking the cardboard. You may be wondering what this is. Actually, it is a stall of fortunetelling. The man is a fortuneteller and the cards that the birds are pecking can show your future. Want to know your fortune? If you do, then you can ask some questions and the fortuneteller can give you some advice. Keep strolling along the vendors and you will hear someone screeching out of pain. They are doing a “foot massage”, which is a traditional therapy. The therapists say that they do the acupressure on the patients’ acupuncture points that are supposed to be lethally vulnerable for a person. When the therapist presses these points, the patients will feel hurt to different degrees depending on their health condition. Are you healthy? You can try this and prove it!

Have you had enough fun? If not, there are games for you, such as “Water Bombs Shooting” or “Fish Catching”. When playing “Water Bombs”, you only need to spend ten or twenty NT dollars and you will get five darts to shoot. After shooting, you can get some prizes depending on how many water bombs you have shot. If you shoot none of them, do not be upset. The vendor will also give you a small present such as candy. In addition, you can choose to play “Fish Catching”. You will be given two things, a paper-made net and a plastic bowl. Then you can try catching fish through this paper-made net and put the fish you caught into your bowl. If unfortunately you catch none of them, then you can try it again. But remember not to be addicted to that; otherwise, you will spend too much money on it. If you really want to have a fish, you can just buy it from the vendor. It is common that you fail the game because “Fish Catching” is hard even for Taiwanese people.

Taiwan’s night markets are definitely amazing places for people from all over the world. The tasty food, traditional displays, and exciting games provided here will give you a very special experience in Taiwan. After you visit a night market, you can realize that the night life in Taiwan is brilliant and colorful. The hustle and bustle of a night market will impress you deeply. Would you like to fall in love with a night market? There are hundreds of night markets in Taiwan waiting for you to visit!