Although it is called the Tunghua Night Market (
First-timers are best off approaching Linchiang Street via Tunghua Street, rather than through the begrimed, asymmetrical arch at the bleak intersection of Keelung Road (
Despite being concentrated along a single, narrow street, Tunghua Night Market defies linear exploration. It spills into back alleys, and sprawls around a purpose-built but under-utilized complex, the ground floor of which was designed to house the stalls.
And there's too much to see in a single walk-through.
Chingtao Soybean Milk (
By night, Linchiang Street is packed with stores, eateries and shoppers. The morning meat-and-vegetable market, which takes over just after dawn -- and which conducts business amidst piles of trash leftover from the night market -- seems half-hearted by comparison.
During peak hours, 7pm to midnight, an ever-changing lineup of mobile vendors fills the midstream. Most are guerrilla entrepreneurs -- unlicensed businessmen and women who disappear the moment a policeman is sighted. Some sell food: peanut candies, glazed tomatoes, or sweet potatoes peeled and cooked with sugar. Others, equipped with clothes-racks on wheels or folding tables, hawk trinkets, underwear and socks.
By 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays there's barely room to stand along the main drag. Despite this, the occasional scooter manages to barge its way through.
There's usually a small crowd in front of Shrchia Chinese Burgers (
A little further east sits the Pohsin Commercial Building (
The upper floors are still empty more than two years after completion, but most street-level units have been rented to entrepreneurs who offer such distractions as crude pinball machines, hoop-throwing stands, and places where you can aim darts at water-filled balloons.
There's also a fully legitimate massage joint staffed by young blind men. For NT$200 they will knead the knots out of your shoulders and back; customers remain clothed and seated throughout.
Visitors will encounter a grotesque side to the night market -- grimy beggars lacking in limbs who drag themselves along the tarmac and a blind old man who, rain and cold notwithstanding, takes up position in the middle of Linchiang Street each evening and plucks tunelessly at his lute.
The intersection of Linchiang Street and Tunghua Steet's Alley 50, Lane 39, just east of the building, is snack central.
Oyster omelets, tempura, lu-wei and other popular dishes are available. Healthier alternatives can be had at Paosutsai Vegetarian Food (
Further back from Linchiang Street, occupying a corner of the Pohsin Commercial Building, is Lao Tan (
Tunghua Night Market is renowned for its sausages, and various vendors vie for the titles of original, oldest and best.
Hunghua Hungguai (
When searching for food, the nearby side alleys should not be written off -- particularly if one wishes to sit down and escape the human maelstrom for a while.
At first glance, Spicy Sister Thai-style Delicacies (
In recent years Tunghua Night Market has seen a proliferation of stinky tofu eateries, such vendors matching sausage-sellers in terms of prominence and popularity.
Those put off by the strong odor of conventional stinky tofu but with a love for spicy food should try Old Wild Vegetable (
If food dominates the western half of Linchiang Street, boutiques full of halter tops, bell bottoms, platform shoes and accessories are the salient feature of the eastern half.
This is a good place to feel the pulse of current youth culture. After 10pm the swarms of fashionable young hipsters may make anyone older than, say, 25 feel a little out of place, though the almost scary getup of some of the mannequins provides post-prandial entertainment. Foreign visitors to Tunghua Night Market -- every evening there are dozens -- are often impressed by the fervid nature of free enterprise here.
"There seem to be many more shops here than in my hometown of more than 30,000 people," commented Peter Schinkel, a recent German visitor to the night market.
Schinkel admitted to being shocked by the less-than-pristine conditions in which some vendors prepare food: "I'm not sure if I would eat from most of these places." But when asked if he would recommend Tunghua Night Market to others, he replied: "Of course. My Taiwanese friends tell me this is the real Taiwan."
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