Night Market Shopping in Taiwan

Hello!

When we talk about street shopping and night market shopping, the first destination that comes to mind is Thailand, but while I was in Taiwan, I discovered the night markets in Taiwan are on a totally different level! The country alongside its beautiful scenic views, hospitable people and Watson's full of amazing sheet masks have a crazy night market culture that will blow your mind off!

Before boarding the plane, I fid my research well and found Taiwan has a bunch of night maskers that should not be missed. So while I was travelling city to city exploring the real beauty of the country and getting to know the culture better, I made sure to visit the night market if the city had one that particular day.

Every city in Taiwan has a night on specific days of the week. Some night markets are dedicated to foods but others have a mix of everything from food, clothes and even entertainment section.

One of the days were staying in Tainan at Silks Place in West Central District which was a beautiful hotel and I will have to write about it in detail some other time, but as we had some time in hand, we asked the hotel staff if there was any night market nearby and there was one just at 5 minutes drive. We totally got lucky as that was the only day the market was open. We got into the cab and rushed to Tainan Flower Night Market.

You must be thinking if it is safe to travel via local transportation for a tourist!! Yes, it is, people in Taiwan are very accommodating.

Coming back to the night market, we reached with 5-7 minutes with are big shopping bags and wallets full of Taiwan Dollars all ready to buy the world.
Tainan Flower Night Market being a mix of everything is a huge marketplace. You can see hundreds if stalls with neon lights beaming from far away. The entrance was full of food stalls. There was everything from chicken wings to beef, pork, clams, mussels, fishes and even live prawns that one could catch themselves and get them cooked in front of their eyes.

Being a hard-core vegetarian, I closed my nose and quietly moved forward. While looking for clothes and accessories, we found so many desserts and all of them looked delicious! We tried candied strawberries, red bean stuffed cakes, waffles with cream filling and my favourite bubble tea. Out of everything, I would say waffles and bubble tea are a must try.
Then began the shopping marathon. The market was flooded with cute socks (which I bought in while sale 🙈) headbands (which I bought in bulk also). Moving forward we realised that how huge the market was and it was just impossible to cover it all in half an hour as the market was about to close down!

Everything in the market was really good quality, way better than Zara and other stores that we shop at all the time. And prizes if all the products were 1/3rd. I picked up a lot of towel sets and nick-nacks like cord holders, chokers and bags. Being a typical Indian shopper, I looked through a lot of clothes shop, loved a lot of them and planned to come back for most of what I liked but by the time I went back, everything was closed!

But as they say, when there is will, there pops a way! Two days later, in Kaohsiung City, we went to Xingzhong Night Market. This was a little different. Located in the market area, this markets was more of little shops and boutiques. There were a few street shops but they were not good.
We started by going to the famous SASA a makeup heaven, Taiwan's version of Sephora. After spending a lit of time there, we moved to the night market. Cities here were more fashionable but not that high quality. But we found a few boutiques where we just went crazy. I got myself a pair of jeans, two stoles, a shrug and a top and everything was dirt cheap. We wanted to shop more but all the shutters were closed. 

Another store worth mentioning is NET, they had cool, good quality, everyday clothes that were even more inexpensive. 

Honestly, shopping in Taiwan is on another level. One can come with hands, bags and suitcases full of clothes, bags, shoes, accessories, electronics of great quality without spending much. 
Taiwan is a great shopping destination and wishes to go back, this time fully prepared.

If you love travelling and shopping, Taiwan is a great destination to explore, just make sure to keep enough room in suitcases to bring all your shopping back home!