Taiwan Today

Twenty-year-old Carol Vindel and Karla Moncada, both from Honduras, have studied international business management at Tamkang University in Danshui District, New Taipei City for nearly two years under a scholarship program from the Republic of China’s (ROC) Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They both enjoy living in Taiwan—especially the local nightlife.

“Taiwan has a very different, diverse and vibrant nightlife. Whatever you feel like doing, you’ll always find something that suits your personality and preferences; you’ll always find an option here,” Vindel says. “Also, Taiwan has many places that offer 24-hour services so you can go there any time of the day or night. That’s just terrific and convenient! In my home country, most shops are closed late at night. And every club has to be closed at 2 a.m. at the latest because of the law.”

Vindel has a long list of nighttime activities that she enjoys in Taipei. When she simply wants to relax, she often goes to one of the cafes that stays open late such as the many Starbucks or 85°C Bakery Café locations, or to the 24-hour Eslite Bookstore, which offers a wide variety of publications to read. When she wants more excitement, she likes to go to one of the popular local bars like Roxy 99 or Carnegie’s to have a drink, chat with friends or listen to music. And if she feels inclined to dance and meet new people, Vindel says she can always find a good nightclub such as Luxy, Room 18 or MiCasa, all of which she finds extremely entertaining and exciting.

Above all, Vindel is keen on traditional night markets, where she can try various types of food, shop and even play video games, all at the same location. Her favorites are Taipei’s Shilin and Shida night markets. “Back home, we don’t have night markets where we can sample many dishes and buy all kinds of goods. We normally eat at restaurants and go shopping at the malls, which largely close at 9 p.m.,” she says. “Plus, Taiwan has the advantage of being really safe. It’s a place where we feel secure when going out at night. That gives us more chances to have fun at any time.”

Similarly, Moncada says she loves to shop at Taiwan’s night markets and taste local specialties there. “I frequently go to Shilin Night Market and I love it! The market offers so many items. I can find fashionable accessories, clothes, shoes, ornaments and daily goods there—almost everything that I would need or desire,” she says. “KTVs are also fun places to go. I always have a good time there singing and laughing with friends. As well, I like to visit the 24-hour Eslite Bookstore Dunnan Branch to read some English books. It feels like a little slice of home.”

Overall, Moncada says Taiwan’s nightlife is very interesting and lively as there are a lot of activities on offer and many different places for recreation and relaxation.

Night Market Fever

Over the years, attractions like the National Palace Museum, Taipei 101, National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and scenic areas like Sun Moon Lake and Taroko National Park have lured tourists from around the world to visit Taiwan. Still, the island’s night markets seem to stand out as the biggest draw for international visitors. According to an annual survey conducted by Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau in 2009, of all inbound visitors, 73 percent visited a night market, compared with 58 percent for Taipei 101, 52 percent for the National Palace Museum, 29 percent for Sun Moon Lake and 26 percent for National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Meanwhile, Shilin Night Market topped the list with 54 percent of international tourists paying a visit, followed by Liuho Night Market in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan at 17 percent.

Basically, the island’s night markets feature clusters of small stalls and street vendors selling a variety of delicacies ranging from finger food, drinks and sweets to sit-down meals. Many of them have been operating for decades and boast of maintaining their original recipes.

The dishes that Shilin Night Market is known for, for example, include stinky tofu, oyster omelets, sausages wrapped in glutinous rice, super-sized chicken cutlets and wok-fried squid served in a thick soup. There are also American-style steaks, Japanese teppanyaki and tempura as well as the “Little Roll Wrapped in a Big Roll”—a small bun with a sweet or savory filling, which is deep fried, crushed and then wrapped in a soft outer layer. The market also sells fresh juice and drinks including the popular bubble milk tea.

Guo Feng-shi, director-general of the Self-Governance Organization for the Shilin Market, attributes the market’s popularity to its diverse offerings including food, merchandise and entertainment at affordable prices, in addition to convenient public transportation access thanks to Taipei’s MRT (mass rapid transit) system. “People that come to our market not only can enjoy both Oriental and Western gourmet cuisine, but also an exciting atmosphere created by the sales pitches from enthusiastic vendors, loud music, bright lights, decorated storefronts and crowds of people walking shoulder to shoulder,” he says. “At the same time, international visitors can dine like a local and have an authentic experience of local culture.”

Guo explains that the Shilin market runs around-the-clock seven days a week, since it operates as a fresh produce market selling meats, seafood, fruit and vegetables from 2 a.m. until noon and then switches to cooked food and snacks from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Currently, some 200 food stalls operate at the night market.

The number of daily visitors to Shilin Night Market is estimated at 10,000 during weekdays and 20,000 on weekends. Apart from domestic residents, Guo says in recent years there has been an obvious increase of visitors from overseas, particularly mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia, as many travel agencies have begun to include the night market in their itineraries.

Eat Like a Local

Guo says he has worked with market vendors to ensure more local delicacies are on offer like pineapple cakes, peanut brittle and beef jerky, together with many different kinds of souvenirs to appeal to foreign tourists to take home or give as gifts.

The food stalls are currently housed in a temporary structure and awaiting the completion of a two-story facility nearby that is slated to open this November. Guo says the new facility will be better designed with easy and clear walking routes and have good ventilation from high-powered air conditioners. Sanitation will also be improved via the use of standard tableware and industrial dishwashers provided for the use of all vendors in addition to requirements for them to wear uniforms and caps.

After filling up on delicious food and shopping for bargains at a night market, one might feel like finding a place to relax body and mind, and Kaoru Wakiya, a young tourist from Japan, often opts to do just that by patronizing one of the city’s growing number of massage shops.

Wakiya is especially fond of the Foot Massage Center in downtown Taipei, one of the island’s leading massage service providers. She says she first found out about the shop in a guidebook that she bought in Japan and likes its service and environment. “The service makes me feel relaxed and refreshed. That’s why I come here every time I visit Taiwan,” she adds.

“Compared to Japan, massages given here are ‘stronger.’ Though the bottoms of my feet hurt when the therapist applies pressure to a number of points, I feel invigorated and at ease after receiving this kind of massage,” Wakiya says. “Moreover, the shop’s environment is clean and cozy, and the air is filled with the soothing scent of herbal essential oils.”

The Foot Massage Center set up its first shop in 2005 and has since opened three more in Taipei. Most of them operate from 10 a.m. to 3 a.m., with one running 24 hours. The company employs 320 full-time massage therapists, serves more than 32,000 customers a month and posts annual sales of around NT$300 million (US$10 million).

Foot Massage Center shops are designed to give the feeling of a natural setting through the use of plants, wooden furniture, air fresheners and indoor water fountains. At the same time, the facilities attend to the comfort of customers with massage beds, showers and VIP suites.

The center’s staff members must receive at least 500 hours of professional training and pass the company’s exams before they can formally serve customers. They are also required to take regular health checkups and continue their education through courses on nutrition, pathology, Chinese medicine and the body’s meridians, and must work on improving their English and Japanese language skills.

Currently, the Foot Massage Center is the only massage service provider in Taiwan that has secured both the Good Store Practice and English Services Emblem certificates, two government-launched programs aimed at raising the quality of local businesses. “We’ve been making constant efforts to improve our service quality, techniques, facilities, environment and management to promote massage’s popularity among members of the general public,” says Ken Chiang, general manager of the Foot Massage Center. “We’re glad to see that massage has now become one of the popular forms of recreation sought by Taiwanese residents and international tourists alike, particularly at night.”

Chiang says massage can help relieve fatigue and stress and facilitate sleep. More and more people are seeking massage therapy after they finish work or after an evening at a restaurant, pub, nightclub or KTV, making his shops their last stop of a fun evening out. “People used to associate nightlife with eating, drinking, playing and gambling,” Chiang says. “However, thanks to growing health consciousness, ‘healthy’ forms of recreation like working out at a fitness club, cycling along the riverbank, receiving massages or reading at Eslite Bookstore have become distinctive parts of Taipei’s nightlife. That’s a good trend.”

Massage in Style

The general manager says that in the past, those seeking massage services were mostly men who were middle-aged or older and belonged to a high income bracket. But through the efforts of the local massage industry to improve its image, professionalism and pricing, more and more young people are using such services to the point that massage has become a “fashionable” form of recreation.

The center’s outlets offer service packages that include foot, neck, shoulder and whole-body massage, as well as gua sha, a kind of scraping therapy, and “cupping,” in which cups are used to apply suction to various parts of the body. Prices at the center’s stores range from NT$200 to $1,600 (US$7 to $53).

Currently, 60 percent of customers who visit Foot Massage Center outlets, Chiang says, are females under the age of 40, while about 12 percent of the chain’s clientele are foreign visitors who largely come from Japan, Korea and Hong Kong. The center is also becoming popular as a venue for businesspeople to treat their business partners, or for families to visit together.

After observing the general public’s increasing emphasis on recreation, Chiang set up a vacation resort, the Six Star Villa Spa, which combines foot and body massage, spa treatments, yoga instruction and accommodation in Hsinchu County, northern Taiwan. The villa features Balinese style décor and has 15 comfortable rooms with good views as well as a swimming pool. Surrounded by fields planted with herbs, flowers and trees, Six Star has a total land area of 16,500 square meters.

Thanks to the high-speed rail that cuts travel time from Taipei to Hsinchu to just 35 minutes, Chiang says that many Taipei residents join locals to visit the spa after work to experience a few hours of escape from their hectic urban lives. “We hope to promote a healthy lifestyle day and night through our recreation- and health-oriented operations,” he says.

Another popular recreational venue where people can sit back and relax in a quiet environment after a day’s work is a coffee shop, with many of the island’s cafes operating late at night. All 41 directly operated branches of 85°C Bakery Café, for example, are open 24 hours. The café chain is Taiwan’s largest, with 325 outlets islandwide.

Kathy Chung, public relations and marketing director of 85°C, says her company’s decision to run 24-hour shops was made in response to customer needs. She says that those in the service, media or entertainment sectors often finish work late at night or early in the morning and need a place to go to eat or meet friends. Furthermore, many people like to have a cup of coffee late in the evening on their way home after most shops close or concerts end at around 10 p.m.

The coffee chain’s 24-hour store near the Jingmei Night Market and MRT station in southern Taipei, for instance, records average monthly sales of around NT$6 million (US$200,000), the highest sales figure among all its outlets. “We believe that customers will have better recognition of our brand when they see our store still open late at night or in the wee hours of the morning to meet their needs,” Chung says.

Myriad businesses that operate late into the night or even around the clock in Taiwan have indeed offered convenient and varied options for people that seek to enjoy themselves after the sun goes down, while also adding to the island’s lively nighttime environment.

Eric Schmitt from the United States, who works in Taiwan as a cellphone software engineer, deems Taiwan’s nightlife to be “pretty solid.” “The night markets, KTVs and the 24-hour [Eslite] bookstore are cool and new to us because we don’t have any of them back home. Spas, massages and hot springs are also among the huge benefits of Taiwan,” Schmitt remarks. “Moreover, there are several bars that offer decent beer and coffee shops that make quality brewed coffee. In particular, Taipei has a number of clubs that stay open all night. And Taichung [in central Taiwan] has its foreigner street that a lot of foreigners hang out at each night, along with some clubs that are entertaining. I truly enjoy what Taiwan’s nightlife has to offer!”

Write to Kelly Her at kelly@mail.gio.gov.tw