SHILIN NIGHT MARKET IN SHILIN DISTRICT OF TAIPEI, CAPITAL OF TAIWAN IS A MUST-VISIT ATTRACTION IF YOU ARE IN THE CITY OF 101 BUILDING.
Shilin Night Market opens around 6 pm but it is best to come around 8pm when all stalls are up and running. Mind you, there are plenty of normal shops selling the same stuff so you can come at 6 pm and start by exploring the brick and mortar shops before heading for the stalls.
I suspect many makeshift stalls are owned by the shops and they sell similar items at identical prices. Even in the Night Market area, there are still normal shops very similar to KL's Petaling Street and Bangkok's Patpong area.
Haggling is the norm but not too much. No point asking for half the quoted price. I did on various occasions and got a rebuke from an exasperated woman who said, "This is Taiwan not Thailand" in Mandarin which sounds even more dramatic.
Still, I managed to buy several shirts and a pair of adidas toe-shoes which I could not find in London which was just as well as my friend who has a pair said it cost him RM 450 whereas I bought mine for RM 160! And from a proper, full-fledged adidas shop too so they are genuine.
Food constitutes nearly half of Shilin Night Market with around 500 hawker stalls and a smaller number of restaurants. The food stalls sell all sorts, from the usual cakes and pastries and noodles to weird stuff like frog eggs but I didn't see fried grasshoppers as in Beijing night market.
Shilin Night Market is the biggest and best so if you are pressed for time, this is the one though there are several more.
As for prices, they are amazingly identical. So either the hawkers are honest or they have formed a cartel! I saw a shirt I liked but not loved so I asked for discount. The opening price was 1,650 New Taiwan Dollars (around RM 170) and was reduced to NT$ 1,300. I did not buy. The second time I saw the same shirt it was NT$ 1,500 but again the final price was NT$ 1,300. Just before I left, I saw the same shirt in another area and again the last price was NT$ 1,300!
Like all night markets, cash is king so bring notes as only the shops accept credit cards but will insist on smaller discounts for obvious reasons since the profit margin is small unlike Hermes. Lucky for us, they prefer to sell in quantity though the quality is pretty good for what you pay!
Most shops and stalls open till past midnight and I left at nearly 2 am!
I WON'T DO THIS SINCE MY SHIRT WOULD BE DAMAGED!
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