On the second afternoon of our trip to Taipei, we took the MRT to the Taipei Fish Market, getting off at Xingtian Temple Station. According to online reviews, we should have taken Exit 3. However, since we had already walked a lot the previous day and that morning at the museum, we decided to take the escalator at Exit 4 to save our legs. MRT stations in Taiwan have detailed maps showing what is available at each exit. We saw that one exit had a sign saying that bus route 49 passed by, but that exit didn't seem right for some reason. We also didn't know if the buses passing by that exit were heading back from the fish market. We were confused as to why the sign didn't say that this route passed by Exit 3. So, we exited at Exit 4 as planned. When we emerged, we were a bit confused for a moment, then decided to turn right. I don't remember if it was a guess or if there was something that made us turn that way. Shortly after turning right, we saw Exit 3 on the opposite side. We also saw several taxis waiting there. We thought that this must be where people take taxis to the fish market, so we crossed the street. However, as we were crossing, we saw a bus with route number 49 approaching. We hesitated for a moment, wondering if we should take it, and then saw the bus stop and wait at the bus stop for a while. We took the opportunity to walk towards it on the left side. At first, we were hesitant, thinking we wouldn't make it, but the bus had been stuck for a while. In the end, just as we were about to reach the bus, it left. Oh well, at least we got some exercise, right? But didn't we just take the escalator? And so, we ended up not saving any money (being cheap as usual) and had to take a taxi. In Taiwan, taxis are all yellow and the starting price is 70 NT. When we got in the car, we told the driver to go to "Taipei Yu Shi." He understood as soon as we said that word. As I mentioned earlier, it's convenient to remember some words in the local language. On the way, the driver asked where we were from. Soon, he dropped us off in front of the fish market and told us that this was Taipei Yu Shi. The meter had only gone up a little, and the fare was 85 NT. By the way, while you need to have the exact fare for buses in Taiwan, you don't need to for taxis; they give change. In some countries, you don't get change if you use cash and have to use a special prepaid card for taxis. After getting out of the car, we decided to turn right and check out the government-run section first. It wasn't very big inside, and most of the seafood was frozen. After a quick look around, we walked over to the private fish market. Walk all the way inside, and before you enter, an official will ask for your hand. Don't worry, they're not asking for it in that way! They'll just spray your hands with disinfectant. Once that's done, you can walk inside. As soon as we entered, we were greeted by this sight. It was displayed right at the entrance. The picture doesn't make it look that big, but in reality, it's quite large.

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Contrary to popular belief and numerous online reviews, the market is not as large as expected. While it is acknowledged that the Shinsen fish market in Sukhumvit is smaller than its Taipei counterpart, the actual size difference is minimal. Despite its modest size, the market offers a wide variety of fresh seafood, with each tank showcasing an impressive array of large-sized specimens.

The little shrimp emerged and raised its neck for us to take a picture. 555

In addition to fresh seafood, there are also processed or seasoned seafood for sale. There are also fresh vegetables here. We also saw some leaves that looked like the leaves used to wrap grilled fish. We wondered if it would be possible to sell the leaves used to wrap grilled fish in our country. It might be worth a try. However, we mainly focused on sushi. We hesitated for a long time over the grilled salmon head, going around several times. Although the price was not too expensive, it was not cheap either. And we were already likely to be full from the sushi we had picked up, and we were afraid that we would not be able to finish it all. In the end, we could not resist the sight of the oil dripping from the fish head, so we bought one pack.

After paying, there is a standing area outside for dining, but the tables in front of the entrance belong to the hotpot restaurant. We saw that it was not possible to sit there. Coincidentally, the people standing next to us were also Thai. This place is popular among Thai people because they want to eat fresh sushi. (My sister even remembered that some of the people we saw today, but not the ones next to us, were also at Jiufen yesterday.) While we were eating, the song "The atmosphere of rain and traffic jam helps me" played. Actually, it didn't help, and there was no traffic jam either. But after we finished eating, we got caught in the rain. In fact, finishing eating doesn't mean we were done. The fish head had a lot of meat, and we couldn't finish it, so we had to keep it to eat later. After waiting for the rain to subside for a while, we saw a large building across the street that looked like a wholesale fruit market, so we decided to walk over and take a look. But we couldn't find an entrance, so we just went into a souvenir shop to browse around. When we came back out, it was still drizzling. There were several taxis waiting in line. The first one was driven by an old man, which made us a little worried because we had read in some reviews that taxis don't understand English. Seeing the old man's demeanor, we thought it would be the same. However, we had heard that taxis in foreign countries don't refuse passengers like they do in Thailand. They don't open the door and ask if you're going to a certain place. You can just get in and tell them your destination. And we made a mistake ourselves. Even though we had read that some taxi drivers don't understand if you say you're going to MRT Xingtian Temple, we forgot to look up what the locals call the train station. And the old man really didn't understand us. He only drove 10 meters and then stopped, asking us again where we wanted to go. We said MRT Xingtian Temple and showed him the plan we had printed on paper, thinking he would understand because the pinyin for Xingtian is written the same way. But he didn't understand. We showed him the map we got from the hotel, and he looked at it for a long time, as if he couldn't see it. We pointed to it, and he shook his head and said, "China, China." We told him that this is not China, it's a map of Taipei. Then he took our plan and asked someone outside. He walked away for a while and came back, thinking he finally understood. But he still didn't understand. We showed him the map again, and then showed him a larger map from a screenshot on our phone. He still didn't understand and kept saying the same thing, "China, China," but this time he added, "Google, Google." We showed him the map again, and he still didn't understand. We didn't know what to do with the old man. Opening Google Maps wouldn't help. Before that, we had also tried telling him to go to Golden China Hotel because we remembered that we had passed this hotel on our way from Exit 4. We thought he would understand better if we said the name of a big hotel, and if we got off near there, it wouldn't be far from the train station. We could walk a little further, which would be fine. We told my sister to get out of the car. At that time, the meter was already over 90 NT dollars. What should we do? If the meter went up from 35 to 50 baht like in Thailand when the traffic wasn't moving, we would pay. But to pay almost 100 NT for less than 10 meters was too much. We said goodbye to the old man and got out of the car. We didn't want to walk back to the original taxi queue for fear of meeting the old man again. But we realized later that maybe his "China" meant "Chinese." Maybe he couldn't read English and wanted Chinese characters or for us to speak Chinese to him. The Chinese characters on the map were quite small, but his generation should have learned pinyin. We tried our best to pronounce Xingtian as close to the pinyin pronunciation as possible, but shouldn't he have been able to guess? Sending us to Xingtian Temple would have been better. As for his "google," it probably wasn't Google Maps as we understood it, but maybe a language translator. We forgot that we had a Chinese language app on our phone and were so preoccupied with the old man that we completely forgot about it. We looked it up and found out that subway or MRT is called jiéyùn (捷运), which is 捷运 in simplified Chinese characters and 捷運 in traditional Chinese characters. In Taiwan, it's not called the same as in China.

Instead of returning to the taxi queue in front of the fish market, we looked ahead (with our backs to the road leading from the fish market) and saw a large road in front of us. We thought we would take a taxi on that road, but when we walked out, the road was very wide and we had to walk a long way to reach the crosswalk to cross to the other side. As we continued walking, we initially saw several taxis passing by, and we planned to hail one at the bus stop (we didn't dare to hail one in the middle of the road). However, when we reached the bus stop, there were none. We continued walking, looking for an empty taxi. After walking for a while, we found one and were about to hail it at the exit of an alley, but someone else hailed it first. Oh well... In the end, we didn't take a taxi on the way back. When we reached the next intersection, we asked someone for directions, and they pointed to a location on a map that didn't seem too far away. And the review said that the distance from the train station to the fish market was about a kilometer. We thought we had already walked a lot, and our destination couldn't be that far away, so we decided to walk all the way to the train station.

Travel map from Taipei Fish Market to MRT Xingtian Temple

(The distance we walked from google map is 1.2 kilometers)

If you are comfortable walking about 1 kilometer, you can walk like us and enjoy the scenery along the way. We will tell you the route. If you walk out of the fish market, you will see a taxi queue on the opposite side. Turn left and walk straight ahead. Pass a small intersection and then onto the main road (you will see an expressway above). When you reach the main road, turn left and walk straight ahead (point A on the map). You will see a gas station on your right.

On the way back, I walked past this gas station. It looked strange to me, as it was located directly under the expressway.

Proceed further until you reach the first crosswalk after entering the main road. Cross the crosswalk to the opposite side (Point B).

The photo was taken halfway across the road, on the median strip under the expressway.

After crossing the street, turn left and continue until the end of the road. (During this time, you will see a place on the right that looks like a funeral home at point C, but it is not a temple.) Then you will come to a large intersection. When we reached this intersection, we were confused because we remembered that there was an expressway on the way we came from, but there was no expressway at the beginning. So we asked a middle-aged man who was waiting to cross the street at the intersection. At first, he seemed to wave his hand, as if to say that he couldn't speak English. So we showed him the map and pointed to where we wanted to go, which was the MRT Xingtian temple. He looked at the map for a moment, as if he was trying to understand the direction on the map in relation to the angle we were at. Then he pointed his finger and told us to turn right first and then left, and we would reach the MRT station. We were very grateful to this man, and we also felt sorry for him because he had to wait for the traffic light to cross the street again, as the green light had already passed once while we were talking to him.

One corner of the Taiwanese funeral venue (point C on the map above)

After walking for a while, the rain started to fall heavily again. We took shelter for a while, and the rain began to subside. However, it seemed that it would not stop raining anytime soon. We decided to continue walking and passed by a temple. We guessed that this was Xingtian Temple (point D on the map), which was beautiful even from the outside. If it weren't raining and we weren't running late according to our plan, we would have liked to go in and pray.

After walking a short distance from the temple, you will encounter a large intersection with a significant number of people. Cross the street to the left and continue walking straight ahead. You will reach your destination, MRT Xingtian Temple. Upon crossing the street, you may feel unsure if you are on the correct path. However, you will recognize a uniquely designed building that you saw in a photograph you took earlier. This confirms that you are on the right track. On your return journey, you will come across a charming bakery that you unfortunately did not capture in a photograph.