Markets in Tamsui, New Taipei City, Taiwan
First published in 2019
Taipei lies inland and is connected to the sea by the Tamsui River. Tamsui itself is a district belonging to New Taipei City, which is a city of its own. Tamsui is easy to reach, you can take the green MTR line to the north. Roughly an hour later you reach the final station. Tamsui is a popular destination for the locals, especially on a weekend, so the Metro can become pretty crowded.
I went to Tamsui on a rainy Saturday morning before the crowd moved in. The shops were just about to open (it should have been around 10 am I think).
The main street is clearly for the (local) tourists. One shop next to the other - fast food, gaming shops, and other stuff. But if you continue a bit and go to one of the small lanes to the right, you find a street market where you can buy everything and nothing. Most of the small lanes are covered provisorily with corrugated plates against the common rain.
If you continue further to Lane 129, Zhongshan Road you'll find the next attraction: A food market where all the locals are buying what they need for the day. Being near the seaside, there is a lot of seafood, but they have meat, vegetables, and other stuff, too. And while most street markets in bigger cities seem to have more tourists than locals, I have not seen a single one here.
