- Introduction -

One of my personal goals in photography this year is to improve my skills with street photography. I'm really interested in the compelling work street photographers are able to produce that tell stories of the lives of every day people and that was an area I wanted to really work on.

I wanted to come up with an interesting way to take these kinds of shots and integrate them in a Taiwan-related theme as a photo project that would be done over a period of time. What I decided to start with is taking candid street-style portraits of the vendors at night markets and to tell a bit of their story.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be posting blogs each with five street shots from the night market and I'll introduce a bit about what that person sells - similar to what the "Humans of New York" photoblogger does.

The first few entries are going to focus on my favourite Night Market: The Zhongli Night Market (中壢觀光夜市) and then when I've exhausted all the types of stalls there, I'll move on to other popular night markets around the country.

If you're not sure what a night market is, its basically a street or an area set up during the night which sells various kinds of food and various other things. Night Markets are excellent places for cheap food and you can have a four course meal at a night market for only a few dollars. Night Markets are important in Taiwanese culture and are often the best night life you can experience in certain areas outside of Taipei as you'll find people of all walks of life enjoying the carnival like atmosphere.

The Zhongli Night Market is over 700 meters long and has several rows of vendors. Browsing a night market is always a pretty cool experience for foreigners who come to Taiwan as its a great way to experience a bit of the liveliness of Taiwanese culture.

1. Mahjong Boss (麻將老闆)

Gambling is a pretty popular activity in Taiwan - this game of Mahjong is all in good fun though as you only have to pay 100NT ($3.00US) to play six rounds of Mahjong with the possibility of winning a huge stuffed animal. Ironically living in Taiwan for as long as I have - I still haven't figured out how to play the game - so this stall isn't one that I frequent very often, but its normal to see young Taiwanese couples walking through the night market with the boyfriend carrying a huge stuffed animal for his extremely happy girlfriend.

2. Fresh Cakes from the back of a Scooter (雞蛋糕老闆)

This guy makes some mean cakes. I don't actually know how to translate these beauties into English, but they're basically just animal shaped pancakes that are cooked on an iron griddle. This guy has been in business for over 30 years and his product is always a nice way to end your night at the night market! You can get a freshly cooked serving for around 20NT (less than a dollar) and they're always cooked fresh and crispy.

3. The Lonely Fortune Teller (算命者)

This guy has been at the night market for as long as I've been living here. He's there every night and he always dresses well - even on extremely hot summer nights. I don't pretend to understand the methods to a Taiwanese fortune tellers mayhem, but they are popular here and some people only make important life decisions based on the advice of one of these guys. I posted this shot a week or two ago on Facebook and one of my photographer friends cleverly commented that as a fortune teller, you would think he would be able to predict a slow business night.

4. Shoe Salesman (鞋子老闆)

Taiwan is a very country with its finger on the beating heart of fashion - People young and old dress in the latest styles from Japan, Korea and the West. When something is popular fashion-wise, you can be sure that you'll find the latest knock-offs available at the night market. I'm not sure how much business is done by the night market shoes salesmen, but if his falling asleep on the job is any indication - he's probably not that busy.

A few weeks ago a fellow long-term Canadian expat author, blogger and a hiking friend of mine, Nick Kembel wrote a blog about Xinzhuang (新莊), the district of New Taipei City (新北市) that he has called home for the past six years and it interested me quite a bit.

While I’ve driven through Xinzhuang a few times, I haven’t actually stopped to visit and to tell the truth I had never actually heard of the cultural attractions that Nick’s blog introduced. Being a lover of shooting Taiwanese temples and architecture I decided that a visit to Xinzhuang’s Temple Street (新莊廟街) was something I had to put high priority on when I had some free time.

Ciyou Temple (慈祐宮) — Ciyou Temple (**慈祐宮)**

I found time to visit last weekend and I decided that after taking care of some other stuff in Taipei, I would try to arrive around late afternoon and explore some of the temples and the back alleys before I lost sunlight. After which I would move on to the new New Moon Pedestrian Bridge (新月橋) and then make my way back to the Temple Street to experience the night market culture of the area as Nick's blog had suggested.

A Taiwanese child making the most of her Temple Visit

Getting there was pretty easy, it was about a 20 minute MRT ride from Taipei Main Station (台北車站) with a transfer at Minquan West Road Station (民權西路站) and from the #2 exit you make a right turn and walk about a hundred meters and you’re more or less at the entrance.

The thing that initially surprised me about Temple Street (and something that I feel a bit ashamed that I didn’t know already) is that the street has three temples which one of which has been classified as a level two and the other two level three national historic sites in Taiwan. Becoming a national historic site isn’t an easy task, and the fact that there are three temples in such a small area that have all attained these statuses goes to show that Xinzhuang had a very vibrant and economically sound history as the temples were all built several hundred years ago during various eras of colonial rule of Taiwan.

A Taiwanese man praying at an altar in Ciyou Temple (慈祐宮) — A Taiwanese man praying at an altar in Ciyou Temple (**慈祐宮)**

Apart from shooting inside the temples, I found that the street and the alleys around it were all great for street photography. If you’re a photographer in Taiwan I highly recommend an afternoon exploring the alleys in the area as there tends to be a lot going on subject-wise. There’s a lot of see and there is ample opportunity for street work. I would recommend arriving earlier in the day though, because in Taiwan older people usually go about their business in the mornings and leave the night markets to the younger generation.

An elderly Taiwanese women in a back alley near Temple Street

The newly opened New Moon Bridge (新月橋) is quite beautiful, its in the shape of a crescent moon and if you walk along it at night there are some buskers performing magic tricks or music for the people who are crossing the bridge to enjoy. At about 7:00pm the bridge will light up and at this time you’ll see a lot of photographers lined up with their tripods waiting for the light show. On the way back I walked across the a glass-floor section of the bridge where you could see the river below you. It was actually a bit scary - even for someone who isn’t afraid of heights like myself. It wasn't that I didn't trust Taiwanese engineering, I just worried about the safety of my camera.

Xinzhuang's New Moon Pedestrian Bridge (新月橋) connecting Xinzhuang to Banqiao

On the way back from the bridge I noticed that things had started to pick up and there were a lot more people arriving at Temple Street for the night market. The night market here I felt was a bit ordinary as far as night markets go. Seasoned veterans in Taiwan typically know that each night market has its special dishes and things to see - the Temple Street Night Market however doesn’t really have any culinary specialties - its all very typical street food that you’ll find at every other night market in Taiwan. I didn’t eat anything while I was there partly because I was starting to come down with a bit of the flu and my stomach wasn’t feel very good and because of the current problems with oil and food safety in Taiwan.

After making my way back to the night market, I walked the entire street again and when I was done I made my way back to the MRT through a back alley avoiding the crowds and hopped on the train back towards Taipei City.

I really enjoyed visiting Temple Street and I plan on making my way back in the future. There is more for me to see, and the possibilities for street photography earlier in the day are a lot more interesting to me than the night market (and the bridge.)

The area is much busier at night where you can enjoy lots of street food

If you find yourself looking for something to do on the weekend in Taipei and you want to avoid the throngs of Chinese tourists at all the other tourist spots, I highly recommend you make Xinzhuang’s Temple Street a priority to visit. Its not like some of the other very touristy and not so authentic ’old streets’ in Taiwan like Sanxia Old Street (三峽老街) or Yingge’s Pottery Street (鶯歌老街) yet you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the amount of history you’re able to experience while visiting this small area of Xinzhuang, an area of Taipei city that has only recently become extremely accessible due to the expansion of the MRT system.