Dongdamen Night Market (東大門夜市) is the largest and best night market in Hualien on the stunning east coast of Taiwan.
Among the many great night markets in Taiwan, Dongdamen seriously has a vibe of its own. This includes local musicians performing, distinctive checked floors, tons of Taiwanese aboriginal foods, and some seriously boozy cocktails.
Tourists flock to Hualien for visiting Taroko Gorge, but often stay in Hualien city (rather than Xincheng village, which is closer to the gorge) just so they can visit the night market.
In this article, I’ll cover how to get to Dongdamen Night Market, where to stay close to it, and most importantly, what to eat at the night market.
I’ve been to Dongdamen Night Market multiple times. For my most recent visit to research this article, it was only a month after the devastating Hualien earthquake in April 2024, so it was extremely quiet.
The night market remains open, but it won’t get busier again until Taroko Gorge gradually reopens in 2025, and will take some time even after that.
Here’s my guide to what’s still open in Hualien and list of other places that are closed across the country.
Dongdamen Night Market Introduction
Dongdamen literally means “East Big Gate” and is located on the eastern end of the Hualien city center. Due to its location near the sea, it sometimes has a refreshing cool breeze on hot summer nights.
It’s no surprise that Hualien’s night market has the most aboriginal foods of any night market in Taiwan, given that Hualien aboriginal population is the highest of any county in Taiwan (read my recommended ways to experience aboriginal culture in Taiwan)
The night market is quite young by Taiwanese night market standards. It was created in 2015, when four smaller night markets (none of which were very old at the time) were consolidated into one big night market.
Those original four night markets were Fuding Night Market (福町夜市), Ziqiang Night Market (自強夜市), Nanbin Night Market (南濱夜市), and Rainbow Night Market (彩虹夜市).
Today, the large square-shaped night market has four main sections (correlating somewhat but not exactly with the old four night markets), and lettered/numbered stalls starting with the letters A to G.
There four main section today are:
- Fuding Street Night Market (Area A, B, C) in red below
- Aboriginal Food Street (Area D and E) in blue below
- Ziqiang Night market Street (continuation of D and E) in green below
- Mainland China Food Street (Area F and G) in brown below
I’ll cover what to eat in each of the four areas below.
How to Get to Dongdamen
Dongdamen is unfortunately not super close to Hualien train station, where most visitors arrive in the city.
If you choose to stay in one of the many hotels and guesthouses around the train station, then you’ll need to walk (30 to 40 minutes), take a local bus (15 minutes), or hop in a taxi (10 min) to reach the night market.
Some people choose to stay in a hotel closer to the night market but further from the train station. This is what I did.
There are a few local attractions which are closer to the night market than the train station, including Hualien Railway Culture Park, Beibin Park (where you can grab a sunset drink here), and Tapingyang Park (which has an excellent children’s playground facing the sea).
Where to Stay near the Night Market
If you decide to stay near Dongdamen Night Market for the sake of being close to it, there are several good hostel, hotel and guesthouse options.
When I recently stayed there for researching this article, I chose Roaders Hotel Dongda (see on Booking / Agoda), which belongs to the same chain as Roaders Plus, one of the hotels I recommend in Taipei.
Roaders is only a 7-minute walk from the night market. It is a fairly simple guesthouse, with free snacks and drinks in the lobby.
My Japanese-style room came with a large bath tub, which is the main reason I choose this hotel (I love a good hot bath after a day of night market feasting!)
For a hostel option, Welcome Hostel (see on Booking / Agoda) is highly reviewed and only six minutes from the night market.
Just past the night market, there are several lovely guesthouses along the coast with ocean views, including 36 Lighthouse (see on Booking / Agoda), View Ocean (see on Booking / Agoda), and Near Seaside B&B (see on Booking / Agoda). They are less than five minutes’ walk from the night market but would be furthest from the train station.
For places to stay near the train station, see here in my Hualien guide.
What to Eat at Dongdamen Night Market
Now it’s time to get down to business! What are the best things to eat in Dongdamen Night Market?
I’ll introduce the night market in the order you’d encounter it if coming from Hualien train station or the hotel where I stayed.
We’ll start with Fuding Night Market Street, which will intersect with Aboriginal Street. Next, we’ll explore Ziqiang street at the bottom, then circle back via Mainland China Food Street – don’t worry if you’re full by then, as it is the least appealing section.
On the Way to the Night Market
If you’re walking from train station or hotel to the night market, the good eats (and drinks) start before you even get to the night market. But this is dangerous because you don’t want to fill up before you even get there!
You might want to bookmark these options for lunch.
Yellow Truck Deep Fried Egg Scallion Pancakes (炸蛋蔥油餅黃車, here) is a very popular green onion cake vendor in a truck painted totally yellow.
The green onion cakes are deep fried (Yilan and Hualien style). Even the egg is deep fried, but only a little so it remains runny on the inside. It’s an oily mess but so delicious!
The food truck is only open 12:30 PM to 6:30 PM.
Zhou Jia Xiao Long Bao Steamed Dumplings (周家蒸餃小籠包) is one of the most famous food stalls in Hualien. People line up en mass for their pork soup dumplings (xiaolongbao or xiaolongbao) and dumplings (none are veggie friendly).
One order of xiaolongbao is TWD 60 for 10 of them – a super high value deal and more than I could finish. One order could feed two people!
The dumpling shop is on a busy pedestrian street which also has Pride flag painted on the road (hence it is called Hualien Rainbow Street), lots of clothing shops, and becomes a little night market at night.
If you’re walking from the train station, it’s seven minutes before you’ll reach the night market – also consider this for lunch instead.
Salt Lick Smokehouse & Grill (火車頭烤肉屋, here) does the best American food in Hualien, including deep dish pizza and local craft beers on tap. It attracts many expats living in Hualien. I stopped here for a (few) beers before exploring Dongdamen Night Market.
A pre- or post-night market craft beer can also be enjoyed at Chill Land or at Mai Tien, an Yilan brewery which is best known for their green spirulina beer (螺旋藻啤酒).
Mochi is a famous Hualien packaged snack – I stocked up at Tzen-Chi Mochi Zhongshan, which is five minutes north of the night market.
They sell big balls of mochi, including ready-to-eat fresh ones or packaged ones you can take home as snack souvenirs. Since they are open till 9 PM, you could come here after the night market.
Fuding Night Market Street
Now we’ve finally reached the actual night market!
If you’re coming from the north (including Hualien train station), you’ll probably enter Dongdamen Night Market through the huge entrance gate here on Fuding Street (also spelled Futing Street). See the pic above – you can’t really miss it.
This part of the night market is what was originally called Fuding Night Market.
As you enter, you’ll find stalls lettered A along the right side of the street and lettered B on the left side. Two-thirds of the way in, Area C will turn left to Zhongshan Road exit.
At the southern end of Fuding Street, it will intersect with the Aboriginal Food Street.
A few steps in, kids will enjoy the DIY cotton candy machines (甜一口棉花糖) here on the right. There are also lots of game stalls on this street.
On the left, Good Luck Sour Plum Soup (缸缸好酸梅湯, stall B27, here), sells traditional sour plum drink (酸梅湯), herbal tea (青草茶), tea eggs (茶葉蛋), and vegan tofu (豆乾).
A lane to the left leads to the Zhongshan Road entrance/exit to the night market. This lane is Area C. Note the Thai tuk tuk milk tea stall (C32) at the entrance to this lane.
When I visited (shortly after the April 2024 earthquake), Area C was very quiet.
Stall C26 (炸蛋蔥油餅, here) has Yilan-style deep fried green onion cakes with egg, while C11(傻師傅湯包) has soup dumplings.
I took a break at Little Bar (阿爸的秋刀魚, C20, here), where I enjoyed some Taiwanese aboriginal millet wine (小米酒 or xiao mi jiu).
I had a great chat with the super friendly owner and a Taiwanese patron sitting beside me (sorry, Mandarin only – see my Mandarin phrases for Taiwan to get started!)
We discussed the obvious – recently earthquake, lack of visitors, and they guessed that I was a YouTuber (I usually prefer not to mention I am a blogger because I want to be treated like a normal customer).
Leaving area C and returning to Fuding Street, and directly opposite Area C, Dongmaiju Grilled Corn (東麥局烤玉米, A34, here) has excellent grilled corn. The stall has origins going back to 1963.
If you’ve never had Taiwanese grilled corn before, they basically scrub it with shacha sauce (沙茶 or “Taiwanese BBQ sauce”) and spices, then keep grilled it until the sauce caramelizes on the surface. It’s magical.
You pay by weight (expect TWD 100-150 for one cob) and need to tell them your preferred spice level: barely (微辣 or wei la), a little (小辣 or xiao la), medium (中辣 or zhong la), hot (大辣 or da la), and numbingly hot (麻辣 or ma la).
If you are vegetarian, indicate it when ordering (also see my vegetarian night market guide).
Continuing south down Fuding Street, watch on the left for Just Ice Cream (正當冰, stall B46). This is a traditional Taiwanese ice cream vendor going since 1948.
The ice creams are all-natural and sorbet-like, with local flavors like aboriginal millet wine (小米酒), honey whiskey (月桃威士忌), roselle (洛神花), taro (芋頭), guava (巴拉), peanut (花生), and durian (榴蓮, yes, the stinky fruit).
A few, like passionfruit (百香果), are dairy free – just ask.
The cones are made with rice from Chishang further south in Taitung, an area said to have some of the best rice in all of Taiwan.
Across from the ice cream vendor and a few steps further down, there’s a stinky tofu stall here (A40) and a stinky tofu fries stall here (A43) just past it.
Stinky tofu fries are a new fad – they are easier to handle for newbies, but fans or real stinky tofu fans will find them not stinky or flavorful enough. You can get them topped with cheese sauce, honey mustard, and other non-traditional flavors.
You can also find stinky tofu fries at Luodong Night Market in Yilan and Raohe Night Market in Taipei.
At Crispy Grilled Mochi (酥烤麻糬, A45), I sampled some grilled mochi with millet (小米) and peanut powder. You can find grilled mochi all over Taiwan, but the added millet is an aboriginal touch.
The stall also had aboriginal bamboo tubes filled with sticky rice (竹筒飯) and millet wine (小米酒).
Just before the end of the street, there’s a popular candied fruit (糖葫蘆 or tanghulu) stall called Sweet Bite (甜一口精緻糖業, A48) on the right.
Their signature item, which I just had to try, is a skewer of candied strawberries (TWD 120 or up to 180 for premium quality strawberries). I got a premium one and the strawberries were big and so juicy!
Whole candied tomatoes stuffed with plum (not my thing…) go for TWD 60.
Aboriginal Food Street
One of the best things about Dongdamen Night Market is the chance to sample local aboriginal foods, and here is a whole street dedicated to them.
You’ll be intersecting the middle of the street here, so go left first, proceed to the Zhongshan Road entrance gate, then come back and keep going straight to reach the next section of the night market.
If you’re coming from the coast, you can enter Aboriginal Street of Dondamen Night Market from the Zhongshan Road entrance gate here, which will be at the start of Aboriginal Street.
The following stalls are listed in order from the Zhongshan Road entrance. Stalls starting with D are on the north side and starting with E are on the south side of the street.
The first stall on the north side coming in from Zhongshan Road, Gao Da Xia Seafood Bar (高大俠海鮮燒烤Bar, D1, here) has grilled seafoods and several beers on tap. You can’t miss the hanging bottle lamps. There’s nothing really aboriginal about it, though.
I had a bit of a splurge at this seafood bar. I ordered some large grilled prawns and an even larger raw oyster with salmon roe, washing down with draft Edelweiss beer. No regrets.
For aboriginal food, you’ll have several choices on this street. HarLuMi (原住民風味餐 D4, here) has grilled meats, whole fish, fried mountain greens (山上的菜), and flying fish roe sausages (飛魚香腸).
There’s a large seating area behind it with a Christmas tree made of green Taiwan beer bottles. You can sit in this area if you order food from any stall on this side of the street.
Another option is 海の屋原民屋 (E11, here). The long menu includes whole tilapia baked in salt, boar meat, huge clams and oysters, and bamboo tubes filled with sticky rice. You’ll need to use a translator for the menu.
This aboriginal stall 黃金糯米雞 (E13, here) has chicken soup and cute woven pouches of sticky rice with salted pork.
Don’t worry if you can’t find the exact stalls I recommend here. They tend to move around and/or close without updating GoogleMaps. Most aboriginal stalls have fairly similar foods, so just try whatever looks or sounds good!
I had to try a cocktail from Aboriginal Drunk (原醉, E16, here), due to the name.
I am pleased to report that the cocktail was indeed very strong (WAY stronger than the weak cocktails they serve at Kenting Night Market!) This one elevated me from buzzed to proper drunk.
There’s a whole section on the menu of cocktails made with aboriginal millet wine (小米酒 or xiaomijiu), another with maqaw (馬告 or magao, a citrusy peppercorn used in aboriginal cooking), and another section called “Get Drunk Fast” (I believe I ordered from there).
The cocktails all have English names but the ingredients are in Mandarin, so you might just have to choose one with a cool name and take a gamble, try to ask, or use a translation app.
On the same street, Chipo Hot Dog (奇波熱狗寶, E15, here, but I found it had moved to the D side) has creative dogs like steak & cheese sauce or aboriginal wine with maqaw.
At this point you should have returned to where we started, at the intersection of Fuding Street and Aboriginal Food Street. Continue walking straight, towards the southwestern corner of the night market.
Just after that intersection, vegetarians should gravitate to The Only Vegetarian Food in Dongdamen (東大門唯一風味素食, E31, here). I freakin loved the vegan wontons here, which came dressed with sweetened black vinegar and seaweed.
They also have vegetarian braised pork rice, fried mushrooms, and some soups. And don’t be concerned about the name – there are other vegetarian foods available in Dongdamen Night Market. This is just the only stall which is 100% vegetarian.
Yuan Xiang Bamboo Rice (原香嘟論竹筒飯, D21, here) is another aboriginal food stall around here. It has grilled mochi, millet wine, and bamboo tubes of sticky rice, with sweet and savory options.
Ziqiang Night Market Street
After the above-mentioned stalls, keep going straight. The food stalls will stop and you’ll go under a pedestrian overpass.
Around here, I climbed the hill up to the overpass, where I found some cool art installations and lanterns on display.
Returning to the market and continuing along, I saw a musician performing in the empty space between Aboriginal Food Street and the next market area.
After you go under the overpass and walk a little further, you’ll reach the entrance to Ziqiang Night Market, which is at the southwestern corner of Dongdamen Night Market.
As soon as you enter Ziqiang Night Market, watch for Yi Da Shaved Ice Desserts (億大雪花冰, D44, here), which is two stalls in on the right side.
They do snowflake shaved ice (雪花冰 or xuehuabing). This is a kind of shaved ice in which huge blocks of pre-sweetened and flavored ice and shaved into in thin layers.
According to the reviews, the chocolate and banana flavor is the pick of the bunch. Unfortunately it was closed when I visited.
A few steps down from it and on the opposite side, Sauce Explosion Chicken Fillet (醬爆雞排 E65, here) has deep fried chicken fillets stuffed with ham and cheese – it’s as good as it sounds.
And it wasn’t available when I was there, but they also have a whole deep fried squid served with seven different colors of sauce.
There are a few reasons to walk all the way to the end of Ziqiang Night Market before turning back:
The first is Mashed Potato Omelet (強蛋餅, E79, here), which does egg crepes (蛋餅 or dan bing), normally a breakfast food in Taiwan.
But here, they are served at night and come with mashed potatoes inside, something you won’t see anywhere else in Taiwan.
Besides familiar options like cheese and Taiwanese basil (always my personal favorite), they also have more unusual options like oyster, cheese and basil (that’s why I tried – looking back, the oysters weren’t good, so I’d stick with cheese and basil) or thousand-year egg. The menu board has English.
Right next door, the second must at this end of the night market is Tainan-invented coffin bread at Chiang Family Coffin Toast (蔣家官財板東大門夜市店, E80, here).
These are big slices of toast stuffed and deep fried – some options include black pepper beef (黑椒牛肉), kong pao chicken (宮保雞丁), creamy crab (奶油蟹肉), and vegetarian king trumpet mushrooms (三杯杏鮑菇) – there’s English on the menu board. It’s very popular, so there’s often a queue.
I was a little annoyed to find that both my first, second, AND third choices were sold out (without any indication on the menu board). I essentially had to ask: “So which ones DO you have”? I ended up with with tuna and corn, which I admit was still very good.
This stall is the last one before the end – just outside, you’ll find the large statue of an aboriginal woman which I shared at the top of this article.
After this, I return to the start of Ziqiang Night Market then turned up Bo’ai street towards Mainland China Food Street.
Before reaching the official start of Mainland China Food Street, you can turn left down another street of food stalls which is also considered part of Ziqiang Night Market.
There are no absolute musts on that street, but there is a very popular juice stall here.
Mainland China Food Street
Our final section is the so-called Mainland China Food Street, which also goes by Bo’ai Street (博愛街) on GoogleMaps.
The southern half of Bo’ai street, which we just walked up, is considered part of Ziqiang Night Market, while the northern end is the “Chinese” food street.
This relatively quiet street has lots of shops selling cheap souvenirs, carnival games like archery and punching bags, and on busier nights, musical performances.
The street gets its name from the fact that there are supposedly foods available here from Guangdong, Guangxi, Henan, Hebei, Hunan, and Jiangxi provinces of China, though this may not be easily apparent or advertised.
When I visited, to be honest, I didn’t see any of this. There are limited food options on this street, and none of them looked distinctly Chinese to me (although that’s a complicated statement, as many Taiwanese foods do originate in China).
There are just a few food stalls to note: Yuli Stinky Tofu (玉里臭豆腐, F45, here) is a popular stinky tofu spot on the left side.
As you continue walking north past the second street of Ziqiang Night Market, you’ll pass another coffin bread stall here and grilled corn stall here.
Half way down, I also found there were several trash bins and restrooms to the right – definitely a rarity among night markets in Taiwan. And they are very cute!
For me, China Food Street was by far the least interesting section of the night market, but since it circles back to the north (and my hotel), it only made sense to walk back that way.
The image below is the northern entrance to the street, which brings us full circle back to where we started!
