One has to be here to appreciate  the atmosphere—sounds, sights, crowds, smells—and hundreds of mom-and-pop stalls. Today we visited two places. The first one, Dongmen Market, is just a few steps from our hotel. A labyrinth of passageways sometimes inside a building and sometimes between buildings. Once in awhile a scooter or a bike would come by.

A traditional morning market where the locals go to have breakfast or buy their daily groceries and cooked food. Look like we were the only visitors there this morning. And so unlike the typical of Taiwaneses who line up for everything, polite, soft spoken: here they are loud, pushy, all trying to get the freshest stuff before they are gone or in a hurry to finish their shopping. Fascinating to watch…

Then we visited Dihua Street, an area known for its Chinese medicine shops and fabric markets. And at this time of the year, its extremely lively Chinese Lunar New Year sundry market. Big crowds elbow to elbow but everyone behaves. A different contrast than the morning market. People shopped for New Year goodies and snacks and decorations and more.  And edibles everywhere—vendors giving out samples, pushing samples to the onlookers, or making sale pitches.