Taiwan Day 4 at Hualien Night Market

Note: This trip was made in December 2018.

We packed our bags and check out from The Silk Hotel at Taroko National Park. As it was December, almost Christmas, the hotel lobby was beautifully decorated with a Christmas Tree and a sleigh filled with beautifully wrapped presents.

The hotel car sent us back to the Hualien (花蓮) train station where we took a taxi to the hotel where we stayed for a night.

Upon checking in at the hotel, we walked around to explore the area. We checked out the Hualien Railway Cultural Park where the remains of the East Coast Line railway track is located. The East Coast Line was constructed in 1908 during the Japanese colonial rule. (Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule from 1895 to 1945.) The Taiwanese government closed down the East Coast Line in 1988 and in 2002, the Hualien County Cultural Bureau started advocating the establishment of a railway cultural park to preserve the historical buildings and railroads.

After visiting the Railway Cultural Park, we continue to bum around and saw a street hawker selling the Taiwanese snack that I like. I was so happy to spot it as I did not get to eat that during this trip to Taiwan.

Our next itinerary was to check out the Night Market scene in Hualien. The Dongdamen Night Market is one of the biggest night market in Taiwan as it consists of Fu Ding Night Market, Zhi Qiang Night Market, Streets of the Provinces including a street for the Indigenous people. The Night Market house more than four hundred stores offering all kinds of food, games and performances. We spent the whole night checking out the various stalls for snacks, games and performances.

While we were having our dinner, we were entertained by a mother and daughter performance. They were singing all the old songs from the 70s and 80s, pretty much before the young girl was even born and a few of the songs even before I was born. The mother and daughter have good voice and put up a good showmanship.

When we were about to leave the Night Market, we watched another performance. This time was a young girl drumming away. She looked so cool and she played well.

After bumming around at the Night Market for a few hours, we decided to turn in early for the night which was a blessing in this disguise.

Once I got into bed, I felt a tremor and the building seemed to sway. Then came an emergency alert on my mobile phone that there was a tremor in the Hualien area, estimated at a magnitude of 4.0. I waited for a call or announcement from the hotel staff to leave the hotel room but there was none. Then I googled and found out that tremor is rather common in Hualien area due to the geographical location.

Thank you for stopping by and Happy Living for Experiences!

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