Tong Hua Night Market

 

DAAN DISTRICT —​​​​​​​ This is a great market for getting all kinds of photographic content. The food here is also pretty great. It's located not too far from Taipei 101 and a lot of upscale bars. So there are plenty of reasons to ink this place into your Taipei destination checklist.

I've been here tons of times, often with my camera, but on this night I happened to capture quite a few good shots.  The weather was perfect.  There was an on and off drizzle that made everything more beautiful.

A lot of new shops have popped up in recent years as this market gets more well-known.  There's plenty to do and see on the way there and upon exiting the market.  As you'll see many of my photos in this essay aren't even from the market itself.  For example the ones below are from a neon-lit budget movie theater and a few other random spots I liked.

As I made my way closer to the market I started to capture more of my typical street shots featuring interesting characters.  Among them were a woman selling berries, a betel nut guy, and a taxi driver.

Once entering the market I wandered a bit hoping to get some nice food shots, as this was my main reason for coming.  I've started to have a bit of success selling stock photos and want to capture more content that seems to get me sales.

I passed some stinky tofu and the staff at the shop greeted me nicely, so I decided to go ahead and make this place my dinner.  After snapping a couple photos of course...

After a nice bowl of stinky tofu, duck's blood, intestines, and rice noodles I continued on my journey, finally making it into the heart of the market.

I was immediately distracted by a really nice dog that I hung out with for a few minutes.  Then moved on and took some more food pictures trying to capture the overall vibe of the place and what this place has to offer. 

Tong Hua Night Market is located in a really strange part of town. The buildings here are insanely crammed together and so one of the best things to do here is just wander through some alleyways once you're done browsing.

Luckily on this night I found some cool stuff to shoot while doing some alleyway exploration. I got a pretty cool lantern shot and two cute pet shots.  Finally, I got a nice portrait of an old man sitting at a temple near the market's exit.

 

Overall I have to say this was one of the best outings I've had in a long time. The weather was perfect for getting neon shots that do well on my online gallery. I was able to get some food stuff for selling stock. And most importantly, I got to take some street portraits that make me feel good.

This is a great spot for street and food photographers.  If you're looking for another spot nearby I recommend heading over to XinYi Road Bridge which has an amazing view of Taipei 101.