306 Night Market

Have you ever been to a “night market” anywhere in Asia? Bristol singer and songwriter Robi Mitch talks to ShaoLan about his experiences visiting night markets in mainland China and Taiwan when on tour there with Transition. Robin shares some of his most memorable experiences of wandering through a night market in Taiwan and being given the opportunity to try all kinds of food and drink, including the infamous “stinky tofu!” Typically, there are also games to play to win prizes and the atmosphere is usually very family friendly, so it’s not uncommon to see young children out with their families around midnight in these night markets!

In Chinese, the word for “night market” is 夜市. The first character 夜 means “evening” or “night” and the second character 市 represents the boundary defining where people can trade, so it can mean “market” but can also mean “city” because historically, cities have usually grown up around areas of trade. However, in this case, 市 simply means “market”, so 夜市, “night market.”