Luodong is a nightmare. Went there last winter for the first time. Been on The ROC for seventeen years and that was by far the worst experience I have ever had here. We were in an alley with sets of stalls on both sides and no motor traffic was allowed in. There was a gimpy little rope to separate the sides of the alley. Both sides bottlenecked.
It was a mosh pit without pushing. Just a crowd of idiots wondering, “Why are the lines not moving and we are all stuck together?”
I grabbed my two companions (A Canadian and his local wife) by the fat of their triceps and surged through the crowd.
Finally when we get to the tip of the bottleneck, we discovered the culprits.
Four or five teenagers standing in front of both entrances of the queues glaring at the sign of a biandang store that was “famous”…
No one had the presence of mind to ask the to move out of the way.
The green onion based snacks were awesome. But I wouldn’t go back to that place ever again. And I have been to the Gaza Strip.
On the flip side. Shilin Night Market was awesome in late 90’s. Especially the little nooks and crannies that have now all became knock off Prada shops.
In 1998, I would come home from a long day of pre-school at $470 an hour and bushiban at $440 an hour and play Nintendo Fifa Soccer to unwind with a few beers and chicken curry roll in a room jam-packed with Nintendos, presaging the early internet cafe’s. There were even bars in the night market at that time.
One was right next door to the large temple in the middle of the market. The girls were all dressed up in Beatle boots, short skirts and pore hugging tops. There was another bar near the KFC that was run by some low-level gangster where you could bring your own hash in and smoke freely…And of course, share amongst the locals.
RaoHe was and forever will be my personal favorite night market. I’m actually very surprised that Raohe is number 1 in polls.
Before the MRT opened and Chinese tour buses coming through, it was golden. The place never got as crowded as it is now on a normal week day.
I also like the idea that it is one road. So you really can’t get lost like you can in Shilin.
Lastly, the amenities of the rainbow bridge to sit and chat while chowing down on your greasy night market food and the newly renovated Song Shan Station to get away from the heat on a summer night is two thumbs up for me!
I did a head to head Raohe vs Tonghua (Linguang) visit-off the other week. Tonghua wins easy. Raohe is way too busy and too much of the food is kind of gimmicky with gimmicky signage.
As a place to take visitors, RaoHe has also traditionally had the added benefit of the bigass 4-story temple at the one end, which is pretty impressive at night.
Even so, as for my personal preference, I vastly prefer Tonghua.
Tonghua is great because you get a magic show of disappearing carts every half an hour. “警察來了!” Used to stay not too far from Tong Hua back when I was visiting during summer vacations. The scene never gets old.
Same deal on Tunghua.
My first visit there, mere weeks after my arrival, my local host had to yank me out of the way so I didn’t get run over when the local bulls came around