Following an extensive relocation, Taipei’s Shilin Night Market reopened yesterday at a renovated location, with visitors crammed into the underground area to taste traditional street foods in a food-court environment.
The 94 food vendors, who moved from a temporary market across from the MRT’s Jiantan Station to the original site following renovation, busied themselves getting ready for the opening since early morning, while visitors poured into the iconic night market in the evening, crowding the narrow hallways in the basement.
To show their appreciation for visitors braving the cold weather, vendors offered free rice dumplings. They said the market would prepare 500 bowls of free rice dumplings to welcome visitors throughout this week.
Photo: Liu Jung, Taipei Times
Well-known stalls selling oyster omelets, squid soup and deep-fried chicken steaks attracted long lines of visitors.
“The new night market is clean and comfortable. It’s a little bit too small, but most of the famous food vendors are still here. I will certainly come again,” a local resident surnamed Hung (洪) said.
However, the air-conditioned indoor location did not appeal to some visitors. Chang Yun-ting (張雲婷), a Taiwanese-American who returned to Taipei for the New Year holidays, said she came to Shilin to experience the hustle and bustle, and was disappointed to find the renovated market in a basement.
“People visit night markets to have the unique experience of walking around the streets and eating outdoors. Putting vendors in a basement is absurd, and it’s like eating in a food court. There’s nothing unique about this,” she said.
The renovation of Shilin market, a historical building built in 1913, began in 2002 to improve the environment, and all the vendors were moved to a temporary site across from the MRT station.
The renovated building on Jihe Road has a ground floor and three underground floors. The first basement level houses the 94 food vendors, and basement levels two and three serve as parking lots, while the ground floor houses vendors that sell vegetables and fruit.
The 500 vendors selling food on Dadong Road and nearby streets have not been affected by the relocation. The location housing the temporary market will be dismantled next year to make way for construction of the Taipei Arts Center.
In addition to overcrowding, the basement also suffered from poor ventilation because of a lack of smoke extractors.
Taipei City Market Administration Office Director Ting Ruo-ting (丁若庭) said the office would continue to monitor and improve the market.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday visited the night market to thank vendors for their cooperation, expressing confidence the market would maintain its status as a top tourist attraction.
“Shilin Night Market is an iconic tourist attraction in Taipei, and the crowd today confirmed our confidence that the renovated market will retain its popularity,” he said.
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS