Ningxia Night Market

Location/Accessibility

Ningxia Night Market is located in a small district called Datong in Taipei City. It is bounded by the area of Minsheng West Road, Nanjing West Road and Chongqing North Road. This night market is easily accessible from CityInn III Hotel, whereby a 15-minutes walk is all it takes to reach the destination. Hence, dinner and supper can be settled without much worries such as missing the last bus or train back to the hotel. Moreover, visitors to the night market are spoilt for choices due to the presence of a wide variety of food and beverages.

  Map of Ningxia Night Market

Entrance of Ningxia Night Market 

Nearby Attractions/Amenities

In the center of Ningxia Night Market, there is a school named Penglai Elementary School. This school may have existed way before the night market first operated. This assumption is made due to the fact that the architecture of the building is rather run-down and somewhat similar to those buildings that have been preserved during the Japanese colonial rule. Our assumption was justified when a local gave a brief explanation on the history of the school. Stalls are also set up with much flexibility along the street so as not to be obstructed by the school building. 

Penglai Elementary School

Specialities

Majority of the stalls at Ningxia Night Market sell food. Based on observation, the night market seems to cater more to locals instead of the tourists. Besides, visitors will have the opportunities to play with the traditional games and queue for local snacks such as the hot mochi and oyster mee sua. In this case, this may affect the number of tourists that would patronize this night market. For instance, there may be a decline in the number of visitors at a particular stall especially for those who are unwilling to try new things out or preferred to eat things that they are more familiar with. On the other hand, there may be a long queue at a specific stall particularly for those who are keen and adventurous to try out new food and snacks. Given the affordable food prices, we noticed that this night market was pretty crowded as their locals had just settled their dinner or supper here. Be prepared to immerse yourself in this delectable smoky lane!

Visitors playing the traditional mahjong game

Queuing for the hot mochi

Ready to savour the oyster mee sua

Layout of Stalls
The stalls in Ningxia Night Market are generally aligned neatly along both sides of the road. Nevertheless, the pathway for visitors to patronise the stalls is rather narrow. With that, problem such as a continuous crowd of people trying to break through the human traffic may arise. For instance, if a person buys or waits at a peculiar stall, that person may be deemed as an obstruction. Recognising that the night market has many food stalls, it is inevitable to find that the pathway remains constantly smoky. In our opinion, the pathway could be widen to accommodate the increasing number of visitors especially during the weekends. We also perceive such implementation as a win-win situation for both the consumers and stall owners. This is so that the latter would have ample space for their goods while consumers need not experience any human jam or have their clothes stained with smoke. With the different stalls set up side-by-side, it is natural that stalls would compete against each other to attract business. 

Narrow pathway in Ningxia Night Market