Every day around dawn, Michael Chu, who preferred that we not print his Chinese name, carries a giant duffel bag of clothes down to the odoriferous banks of the Tamsui River to set up shop.
His workplace is an open-air spot under the Chunghsin Bridge (
Meanwhile, his vendor friends are also setting up shop for the day's business. One carries rusty metal tools from a van and dumps them onto the ground. Others are setting up iron racks and stands to display their goods.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
On the surface, the flea market is not much different from the usual Taipei night market, expect for its opening hours, between about 4am and noon. As the sun rises and the day heats up, crowds of early risers and housewives begin to gather. The cacophony of a nightmarket grows, with the sounds of karaoke, the yelling of vendors promoting their goods and the yelling of "Bendon!" (lunch box in Taiwanese).
Perusing the stalls at this "flea market," however, can be an eye-opening experience unlike a visit to other markets. The market is viewed with deep suspicion by police and government officials, who charge that many of the goods on sale here are stolen or illegal. But with scant evidence to prove that the goods for sale were stolen, it's business as usual under the bridge.
In one stall is a cluster of old hand-written adolescent love letters, a bunch for about NT$10. At another stall are ironware components, such as locks, door knobs, pliers, screwdrivers, all broken and rusty, for NT$50 a bunch. In one corner lies a box containing dozens of VCDs marked with a sign that reads "secretly videotaped from love hotels. NT$50 each. Self-service." No one appears to be manning the stand. Instead, customers are expected to drop the amount of a purchase in a small coinbox beside the VCDs. Self service, indeed.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The nitty gritty
"Here you can immediately feel that you are in Sanchung," said Chen Han-chung (
Twenty or 30 years ago, Sanchung was filled with small factories and young men eager to make it big in the capital across the river. Little has changed since then and Sanchung's "rule of the jungle" atmosphere has survived largely intact, as evidenced in the flea market. Being a working-class suburb of Taipei with a reputation as the city's gritty underbelly, the "feeling of Sanchung," as mentioned by our guide, apparently refers to the uniformly loose tank tops, broken shoes or slippers and deep squats of the vendors behind their goods. "It's already very cheap! No bargaining," they say gruffly through bright red, betel nut-stained teeth.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
If the vendors come across as down-at-heel, the market's customers are an equally colorful batch. Strolling gaudily through the market is the occasional middle-aged Lady of the Night in a tawdry dress and heavy make-up appearing around the karaoke stalls and singing songs for NT$20 a pop.
The market sells a dizzying array of goods, ranging from everyday items to kitschy antiques.
Chiu Chin-hai, who also did not wish to have his Chinese name printed, has a stall of Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and Cultural Revolution goods at the market. Red Guard armbands sell for NT$500. He has different sizes, with different portraits of Mao. Mao's Little Red Book sells for between NT$200 and NT$600. "This one has a portrait of Karl Marx, so it's more expensive -- NT$600," Chiu said.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
At another stall run by Mr. Lee, who similarly requested anonymity, are antiques like old Taipei street lamps from the 1950s and license plates for bicycles from the 1940s. One of the oddest items is the signboard for the Kiribati Trade Office in Taiwan.
Chen Han-chung and Tan Li-ping, performer and manager of A-chung Puppet Show (
Having grown up around Sanchung, Chen recalled that there previously were many such flea markets on the outskirts of Taipei. But now, these "old goods vendors" have been pushed to the edge of the city, with the greatest concentration of them here under the Chunghsin Bridge.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Shady dealings
Though the market has been rumored for the past 10 years or so to be the prime off-loading spot for stolen goods, few venture to guess what portion of the goods for sale are, in fact, stolen property.
"For stolen goods, it's more likely to be VCRs and mobile phones. There are a lot of goods that were collected from garbage dumps. And some are simply surplus goods, like the clothes I sell," said the clothes vendor Chu.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"The real thieves of course don't sell things here," Chu said. In the early morning before the market opens around 3am, some people on motorbikes carrying goods come and haggle briefly with vendors over prices, and quickly leave. Those people are more likely to be thieves, said Chu.
Urban development and changing urban policy have done much to squeeze out flea markets like this one in Sanchung.
In Taipei City, the only remaining market similar to the Chunghsin Bridge market is in the Wanhua District at the corner of Kangting Road and Hoping West Road, where about a dozen vendors gather every day between 3pm and 5pm.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
One vendor at the Wanhua market, Mr. Lin, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the goods he sells were mainly collected from garbage. Judging from the items on sale at his stall -- a VCR remote control for NT$50, a used bra, used cosmetics and plastic hamburger-shaped toys -- one is rather inclined to believe him.
Most of Lin's customers are old veterans, homeless people and some curious passersby.
Since Taipei City began systematic garbage collection and enforcement of dumping restrictions during Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) term as Taipei mayor, banning the dumping of garbage at street corners, the sources of goods for such flea markets were greatly reduced.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"Now [Taipei Mayor] Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) administration is taking [waste management] further. Because of the garbage separation policy, our business is getting even worse," Lin said.
Now Lin can't even buy garbage off garbage collection crews. He said he also can't buy garbage from security guards at housing developments. Even trips to the major Mucha recycling center would require him to ask workers there to risk their jobs to sell him goods.
To government officials and police, Lin's decreased business is a sign of progress.
Hotbed for crime
According to a statistics from the Sanchung Police Station, the Chunghsin Bridge market was the site of five criminal prosecutions in both May and June. The offenses included gambling, obscenity (selling pornographic VCDs) and one stolen goods case. There were also cases of minor clashes between vendors.
"They are all illegal vendors without licenses," said a Taipei County official. He likened the vendors to a swarm of feeding flies, which, when swatted away, return in the same number to the same spot. But facing the number of vendors, police are powerless to do more than hand out tickets for obstructing traffic. "We have limited manpower to watch and hand out tickets every minute," said a Taipei City Wanhua District police officer.
A Taipei County Sanchung police officer, echoing his colleagues' frustration, said that a year ago the police cleared the Chunghsin Bridge area for a public construction project. "We smashed up the stalls, and confiscated their goods, but within weeks they appeared under another bridge. And when the construction was over, they all moved back," the officer said.
Given that efforts to demolish the market have failed, the government's objective now is to bring an element of control to the site.
Setting rules
The ground under the Chunghsin Bridge falls under the jurisdiction of the Taipei County Riversides and Hillsides Control and Protection Center (河川高山地維護管理所). Huang Chun-yao (黃俊堯), director of the center, pointed out that "it is not permitted to set up a market under the bridge, which is on the dredge canal of the Tamsui River." But, considering the growing crowds and the economic slowdown which has brought more vendors and consumers, Huang said the center has tried to implement a set of rules to control the market. Opening hours are supposed to be from 6am to 2pm, and the market space is restricted to within a fenced area.
For their part, vendors at the Chunghsin Bridge market have set up their own association to handle cleaning for a fee of NT$100 per day for each vendor.
"The market is a pool of opportunity. As long as there is a chance to earn some pennies, there will be a bunch of people willing to jump in and give it a shot," said vendor Michael Chu.
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