Taiwan Travelogue: The Huaxi Night Market

Located just around the corner from the Mengjia Longshan Temple, on the corner of GuiLin Road 桂林路 and Huaxi Street 華西街, in a bustling and busy part of Taipei is the Huaxi Street Night Market. It’s pretty far from the financial district. It’s a little more on the inner-city side of Taipei and well worth a visit.

Of course, the main thrust of night markets in Taiwan is the food and this night market deals in the more exotic types of food. It is home to the famous “Snake Alley.” These are restaurants that specialize in snake, as you may have guessed by the name. In years gone by, these places did a show where they caught and skinned the snake. But they don’t do those anymore because they anger the animal rights activists and the shopkeepers are forced to defend their practices. The other problem was that foreigners would come to photograph the show but then didn’t stay to eat. So it was a waste of snakes. I’m not much of a snake lover, but I don’t like destroying animals so some foreigner with a camera will have something to show his buddies back home. I did, however have a snake meal, which I will describe in my next post.

There are many other unusual foods that can be found here, some of them may even be considered to be endangered species. There is a restaurant that sells Sea Turtle. There’s a seafood place that also sells Crocodile. The Crocodile was prepared like San Bei Ji 三杯雞 (Three-cup Chicken) but it was Three-cup Croc. In today’s climate of political correctness, I would think that these places are not going to be around much longer, but for today, they survive. My thought was that it would be mostly tourists that would be there to sample forbidden foods. But I was wrong, it seemed that many of the locals would take an evening out with their children to visit the market and sample the exotic foods. In fact, I only saw a few foreigners the whole night and they were looking for the “Snake Shows.”

The Insultor of Foreigners Speaking Chinese

There are a lot of booths with the standard Taiwanese snacks. I saw places with Oyster Omelets, there was Xian Si Ji (Salty Chicken), Niu Rou Mian (Beef Noodles), and Beef and Pork Fried Rice. The people were fun and interesting but intent on selling you their wares. I met a woman there selling barbequed, dried Squid. An interesting food, to say the least, but what made it so good was the woman who sold it. She was a character. She complemented my Chinese, telling me, “Oh your Chinese, so good!” It would have been a nice compliment if she didn’t roll her eyes and burst out laughing as she said it. I was charmed enough to buy a bag of Barbecued Dried Squid to snack on but I thought it a bit dry.

It wasn’t only about food, though. They were a number of booths selling artwork. There were booths selling traditional religious icons. There were booths selling knock-off designer clothes, watches and accessories. I was even offered several foot massages and a full body rubdown. The booths catering to the tourist trade had a number of Chinese trinkets for sale. There was even a guy who sold legal weapons. Guns are outlawed in Taiwan, but apparently switchblades and butterfly knives are not. This man had quite a selection for sale. I stumbled across a booth with games for kids and adults. My guess is that some of the games were a form of gambling for adults. Of course, there were also booths that sold pornography in the form of VCDs, and pirated DVDs. You can find just about anything you want at a Taipei Night Market.

You tell me, are these guys gambling?

I bought a hand painted water color, while I was there and the artist, who was also a calligraphy master, wrote 山高水長 (Mountain High Water Long), in calligraphy along with 2011 Taipei, Taiwan and his name.  I think the painting is quite beautiful and he sold it to me for only $1,000 NTD ( about $29.00 USD).  My Taiwanese friend told me, "Make sure to haggle with that guy."  So, haggle I did.  But since we bought a number of things, haggling wasn't really necessary.  He kept saying, "I'll make a good price for you."  I was happy and apparently he was, too.

Part of this particular market was covered, mainly where the restaurants and art shops were, but the rest was open air and quite busy for a Tuesday evening. It’s a good place to visit and fun place for your family.

A fancy restaurant like this is quite a contrast to the usual snack booths at a night market.

This man is selling traditional style Chinese clothing, $390 NTD is equal to about $13.50 USD.

Other posts you may be interested in:


Taiwan Travelogue:  The Taipei 101
Taiwan Travelogue:  Old Ceramics Street
Taiwan Travelogue:  The Traditional Market

Random Asianess: Taiwanese Baseball

Taiwan has a professional baseball league and this week we had an opportunity to see a game. There are four professional teams in Taiwan: The Brother Elephants, Lamigo Monkeys, Sinon Bulls and the President, 7-11 Lions. The team names are made up of the sponsoring company name and the team name. The game we saw was the Mother’s Day promotional game between the Brother Elephants and the Sinon Bulls. We are all big Elephant fans over here.

Baseball in Taiwan began in 1989 with the formation of the Chinese Professional Baseball league. In 1996 the Taiwan Major League was formed. But in 1998 there was a betting scandal reminiscent of the Chicago Black Sox, where members of the team conspired with gangsters to “throw” the games. This led to a huge decrease in game attendance the subsequent merging of the two leagues. The game has recovered and the attendance has begun to climb in recent years, although, it reminds me of single A baseball in the US.

A Taiwanese Stadium is not nearly as large as a Major League Baseball stadium in the US. In fact, it reminded me of minor league stadiums like the stadium where the 66ers play in San Bernardino. The stadium was clean and modern. The particular stadium where we went the home of the Lamigo Monkeys was built only two years ago. Our seats were in the sixth row, right behind first base and cost $300 NTD (about $10.00 USD)

The game was well played and pretty exciting. The Elephants led off with a 4 run lead (4-0) but finished the game with a score of 9 to 6. They loaded the bases in fourth and fifth innings and lost a few runs but managed to get out of the inning.

Foreigner Orlando Roman opened the game but after two pitching changes they finished with their closer, an American named Ryan Cullen (ERA 1.95 34 saves).

One of the interesting things about Taiwanese baseball is the fan interaction. In the US we are used to people yelling and clapping and doing things to rally the team but it is mostly an individual effort. We might do the wave but clapping and yelling and cheering are usually a “do your own thing” endeavor. In Taiwan, there is a group of cheerleaders, not young women, wearing not quite enough clothing, these cheerleaders were mostly men and they used drums, trumpets, flags and microphones to coax a response from the audience.

As you enter the stadium you can purchase a pair of clappers. These are hollow plastic tubes that can also be used to shout through. When clapped together they are surprisingly noisy. The drummer sets a rhythm and the audience claps along. Or one man will shout through the microphone and the audience will repeat, both words and cadence. Flags are waved at every out, and every hit. At the end of every inning the ball is tossed into the audience.

Food sold at the stadium is a little different. We saw people eating Hot Dogs, of course, but Taiwanese Hot Dogs are what I would call the “AntiDodger Dog.” They are bland and flavorless and served with catsup only. They also serve the traditional Taiwanese lunchbox, of Rice and Chicken, and some pretty delicious looking Ice Cream with fruit or chocolate/nuts toppings.

Photos:  Chris & Brenda Banducci

Other posts you may be interested in:


Traveling with M13: Custom Scooters of Taiwan
Local Color: The Colors of Yingge
Random Asianess:  Oh Sure, Now We Decorate

Local Color: The Colors of Yingge

Sometimes the best way to express something is through pictures. Taiwan is a visually interesting place. These photos were taken on a trip to Old Ceramics Street in Yingge, as you can see the place, though a tourist haven, is beautiful and colorful.  A visit to Old Ceramics Street is a must for a tourist in Northern Taiwan.  It's located about 40 km south of Taipei, near Taoyuan City.

Other Posts you may be interested in:

Local Color:  The Temples of Taoyuan City

Taiwan Travelogue:  Old Ceramics Street

Taiwan Travelogue:  The Taipei 101 (Part 2)