Longshan Temple, Snake Alley, and Hwahsi Night Market



Longshan Temple is a small but ornate temple, which sees a lot of activity and is also near an excellent night market. The Hwahsi night market is divided into segments. The part of the market with the roof is Snake Alley a.k.a. the tourist market. The surrounding area is the local market.


Snake Alley is over-rated and can be a bit creepy, but it is worth a walk through at least once to see snake handlers who eventually serve up the snakes as dinner. If you need any sex toys to see you through your stay, this is also the spot to pick them up. There are also some very suspicious side alleys, that are best avoided, althought probably not dangerous.

The local market, which is everything not under the roof, is much better and features almost everything under the sun including brass sculptures, cheap watches, DVD and VCD movies, clothes, used mobile phones, and food tents with a great variety of Chinese foods.

Getting to Longshan Temple and Hwahsi Night Market
Two stops west of Taipei Main Station on the Blue Line is the Longshan Temple MRT. Come out of exit 1 and take a right. You will go through a block of fortune tellers and then you will see the temple ahead on the right and the market across the street to the left. To get to Snake Alley walk through the market for about a block and you will see the entrance on the right. It is hard to miss.

Tourism Bureau

Wikipedia

Taipei Site Seeing Index

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