Dongdamen Night Market – You’re Bound to Enter a Food Coma in Hualien

When spelt in English, ‘Dongdamen’ sounds almost similar to Seoul’s ‘Dongdaemun’, but these two places house entirely different things. While Seoul’s Dongdaemun is a popular shopping spot, Taiwan’s Dongdamen (東大門) is the largest street food night market in Hualien. This night market is situated at the Eastern edge of the city at the coast, and occupies the grounds of the old train station. There used to be many small-scaled night markets in Hualien, but they have all come together at Dongdamen.

Dongdamen Night Market is separated into many divisions – from Futing Night Market to Streets of China Cuisines to Streets of Aboriginal Cuisines to Ziqing Night Market. Each area offers visitors a delicious insight into Taiwan’s local street food.

Futing Night Market is famous for traditional Taiwanese snacks like the stinky tofu, grilled sausages, and braised pork belly rice, just to name a few. Carnival games such as pinball and darts can also be found along the streets in this area.

The Streets of China Cuisines are easily recognized by the rows of red lanterns and unique brick buildings. You’ll feel as though you’ve time travelled back into China’s olden days. Cuisines and handicrafts from Guangdong, Henan, Hunan, Jiangxi, and some other provinces can be found here.

The Streets of Aboriginal Cuisines, on the other hand, are distinctly known for their traditional bamboo and wood architecture. This area is for the adventurous palates as you’ll be introduced to fried wild boar, millet wine, and other interesting delicacies.

Located directly at the back of the Streets of Aboriginal Cuisines is Ziqing Night Market where all the time-honoured stalls are located at. On weekends, you’ll have to queue for quite some time if you want to try the food from the well-known stalls. We highly recommend trying the coffin cake (棺材板). It’s actually a huge sandwich with its centre cut out and filled with different kinds of savoury items.

It is impossible to try everything at this massive night market within one evening, so if you’re visiting Hualien for a couple of days, you might want to grab a bigger group of friends and head down to Dongdamen together.

Dongdamen Night Market
Address: No.50, Zhongshan Road, Hualien City, Hualien County 970, Taiwan
Directions: If you are travelling from Taipei Main Station, take the Puyuma Limited Express or Tze-Chiang Express train to Hualien. After exiting the station, you can either take a 5-minute taxi ride, or take any of the following Hualien public buses (1123/ 1126/ 1128/ 1129/ 1131/ 1132/ 1133/ 1136/ 1139/ 1141/ 105). You can also take a 25 to 30 minutes walk down Zhongshan Road past the city downtown area towards the waterfront to Dongdamen Night Market.
Opening Hours: 6pm till late