The night market on Kenting’s (墾丁) high street in Pingtung County was voted the nation’s worst by netizens in a Web survey by YamNews.
The survey, which was conducted between April 20 and Friday last week, asked netizens to choose what they thought was the worst night market in the nation.
Of the 1,248 ballots cast, 21 percent chose the night market on Kenting’s high street (墾丁大街). It was followed by Kaohsiung’s Liuhe Night Market (六合夜市) at 19 percent and Taipei’s Shilin Night Market (士林夜市) at 10 percent.
Other popular night markets that made it onto the top 12 worst list include Miaokou Night Market (廟口夜市) in Keelung, Raohe Night Market (饒河夜市) and Ningxia Night Market (寧夏夜市) in Taipei, Fengchia Night Market (逢甲夜市) in Taichung and Huayuan Night Market (花園夜市) in Tainan.
The markets that were rated among the three worst in the survey have all recently been dogged by negative media coverage.
It was reported that a tourist at Kenting’s high street night market paid more than NT$1,000 for just a plate of braised food, which is a popular snack at night markets. Tourists also said that they paid NT$230 for barbecued squid, when the price for a portion should be less than NT$100.
In an interview last year with the Chinese-language Apple Daily, a tourist said that he paid NT$1,680 for a plate of stir-fried flathead grey mullet seminal vesicles in sesame oil.
He said he saw that the price for the dish was NT$160 and thought it was a lot cheaper than the same dish sold by other food vendors in the night market. When he asked for the bill, he was told that NT$160 was the price for 37.5g of seminal vesicles, rather than the price of the entire dish.
Shilin Night Market was also criticized for overcharging tourists for certain items, including fresh-cut fruit and corn on the cob. A netizen reported being charged NT$1,500 for seven small bags of fresh-cut fruit.
Others reported being “robbed” when they bought corn on the cob, which cost NT$200 per stalk or NT$1,000 for three.
Chinese actress Jiang Xin (蔣欣) also said that she was once charged NT$300 for 375g of cherries at Shilin Night Market.
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