Wufenpu 五分埔
110, Taiwan, 台北市信義區
Opening hours:
Mon - Sat 12pm - 12am
Sun 12pm - 9pm
Nearest MRT station is Houshanpi station.
Take a MRT train to Houshanpi Station and exit by 'Exit 1' - Wufenpu Commercial Zone. From there, (you may wanna use your GPS or phone map apps or simply ask a local) walk north along Jhongpo North Road to the intersection of Jhongpo North Road and Yongji Road.
Best to go around late afternoon/evening so that you can simply follow any batches of school students alighting at Houshanpi station. They seem to be mostly going towards Wufenpu.
Also, you can shop til evening and hop over to Raohe Night Market nearby!
Tip: Try not to visit on a Monday as the day is mainly reserved for wholesalers and thus the store keepers may not have energy to entertain tourists/random buyers.
Wufenpu is the largest commercial zone focusing on clothing in Taiwan. There are around 1,000 shops selling different types of clothes, as well as shoes, bags and jewelry in part of them, in a tiny area close to half of CKS memorial hall in size.
Plan a systematic manner of shopping up & down the rows of shops if you intend to comb through each and every one. Otherwise, it'd be so easy to get lost in this shopping maze!
Prices are hiked up for buyers to bargain unfortunately.
Most of the stores do give a slight discount ("wholesale price") if you buy a minimum of 3 pieces, which can be of the same or different designs - criteria varies for different stores.
On top of that, if you have a flair for bargaining, you will be able to get a better deal.
I must say, save your (bargaining) efforts if you really like the item. JUST BUY. lol. Though the prices aren't the most attractive I noticed, they're still mostly cheaper than in Singapore.
A gauge of the price range:
Female dresses - TWD300 - TWD700
Female flats/heels - Usual 2 for TWD500 - TWD700
Male casual shirts - TWD700 - TWD1,200
The designs of female clothings didn't catch my attention though. But if you do see anything you like, save the time (bargaining) for more important stuff like, combing through more stores :p
Raohe Night Market 饒河街觀光夜市
105, Taiwan, 台北市松山區
Raohe night market is a mere 10 mins walk from wufenpu. Use your GPS or screenshot the map before setting off!
The Raohe Street Night Market is one of the oldest and most popular night markets in the Songshan District.
It is about 600 meters long, with Ciyou Temple is at one end of the market. We followed our GPS from Wufenpu and found the temple (/night market) in no time!
Smacked right at the entrance of the night market is the famous 胡椒餅 (black pepper biscuit)!
Needless to say, we joined in the queue without thinking much *cue kiasu Singaporeans* :D
胡椒餅 (black pepper biscuit) is a Chinese snack composed of meat marinated with sugar, soy sauce, black pepper, and scallions encased in a large, flaky biscuit-like bread; this wrapping is not leavened with yeast.
Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this snack cos of the strong porky taste T.T So much for waiting almost 20 mins in the queue :(
Thankfully the next street snack SAVED ma life!
(Literally cos I was so hungry by that time!!)
Just slightly further up from the pepper crispy bun stall, there is the 鸟蛋虾球 (quail egg with prawn) going at only TWD55 for 10 balls! Less than SGD2.50 for such a combination is quite something, cos in SG, anything with prawns, for instance, tako balls with prawn fillings will set you back at least $3 for merely 5 balls?
Most important thing is, it is SUPER DELICIOUS.
Definitely a must-try please!
There are so many flavours to choose from, namely classic, japanese wasabi, thai sweet & sour, honey mustard, lemon pepper and so on!
The best sellers are the classic and thai sweet & sour flavours.
We chose the classic! ^^
Anyone knows where to find this snack in Singapore? I almost psycho M to buy the tako ball machine/maker so that we can make it at home ourselves lol.
Had some winter melon tea to dispel the "heatiness" from so much street food.
Our next favourite would be 玉子焼!
I don't know what it should be translated to in English but practically, this snack is of thick, dense but moist eggs with milk, salt and your selection of ingredients like abalone, pineapples, scallops, crab, lobster, black pepper, prawns, etc, topped with thin bonito flakes ^^
We had the choice of lobster fillings for this, and it was amazing!
Queue was very long though, around 30 mins :( Be sure to grab something else to munch on while waiting!
3 Slinkys in a basket haha.
They were the stall owner's doggies and she kept them in the basket to prevent them from running around in the crowd while she's tending to her stall.
So many cutie doggies at the night market ^^
After satisfying our tummies, we went to try our luck at the catching machines.
M caught 3 lovely dolphins at one go! So li hai! And they were one of each of the colors available some more!
(Actually there's green, but none of us likes green so we didn't go for a fourth try, lol,)
Bought two pairs of sneakers from the night market for trekking the next morning.
One in a lovely shade of pink, and another pair in blue canvas :)
Here's one of them. Only TWD350 (SGD15)!
To go back to Ximending, simply walk to Songshan Railway Station and take a train to Taipei Main Station. From there, switch to the MRT to get to where you need, in our case, we took the MRT to Ximending which was just another stop away.
Take note they should look like this, and not like the usual MRT trains!
