Shilin Night Market

Taipei’s largest and most heavily-trafficked night market, sprawling across several blocks around the heritage-listed red brick Shilin Public Market, dating back to 1915, and Shilin Cixian Temple in Shilin, Taipei. Its origins lie in the agricultural trading ground in front of the temple, where produce brought in from the surrounding lowlands was loaded at nearby Sanjiaodu (三腳渡) and carried by river to Dadaocheng and Monga. The old Japanese colonial era market building was hollowed out and rebuilt with underground dining halls between 2002 and 2011. For all its transformation into an international tourist draw, the market remains one of the clearest living expressions of Taiwan’s distinctive night market culture.