Taiwan’s Specialty Markets

Dihua Street
Taipei’s entrepreneurial incubator

Dihua Street is historically the oldest and most fully developed commercial street in Taiwan. Located near the Da­dao­cheng wharf, since the late 19th century Dihua Street has been an important distribution center for tea, herbal medicines, cloth and dried foods from Taiwan and beyond.

In 1853 people originally from Tong’an in Fujian fled from Banka to Dadaocheng after an ethnic conflict, and settled in the area where Dihua Street now stands. With the opening of the port of Tamsui to foreign trade in 1860, a wharf was built at Dadaocheng. In 1865 the Scotsman John Dodd brought in tea seedlings from Anxi in Fujian and began growing tea in Northern Taiwan, opening the door to tea farming in Taiwan and tea processing in Dadaocheng. Dodd promoted the sale of “Formosan oolong tea” to the global market, marking Taiwan’s entry into the world economic system.

In her book A Century of Magnificence on Dihua Street, author Xu Liqin tells the stories of business owners who started out on Dihua Street. Key figures from the “Tainan Gang,” including Hou Yuli, Wu Xiuqi, Wu Zunxian, and Kao Chin-yen, began as traditional cloth merchants and, ­after accumulating some capital, invested in manufacturing, founding the Tainan Spinning Company. They later each went on to develop diverse business empires.

Kao Chin-yen, for example, switched from textiles to flour milling and built a food products empire, founding Uni-President Enterprises. It was Uni-President that ushered in the age of convenience stores in Taiwan when they were franchised to open 7-Eleven shops, which changed the daily lives of Taiwanese consumers.

Lian-Hwa Foods Corporation is another Dihua Street firm whose products Taiwanese have been eating since childhood, while Kuang Chuan Dairy Company, which started out as a vendor’s stall there, later established the Hi-Life convenience store chain. These companies that are so much a part of daily life got their start in Dihua Street.

Every one of Dihua Street’s old shops has its own story.

Products piled up on display on covered sidewalks are a common sight on Dihua Street.

For a century, the people of Dadaocheng have been under the protection of the City God.

Herbal pharmacy

Traditional Chinese pharmacies are also an important element in the Dihua Street mix. “Chinese medicines came to the river port at Da­dao­cheng via mari­time trade, which is why herbal pharmacies became concentrated around Dihua Street,” says Huang Xiuzhen, second-generation owner of Huang Chang Sheng Traditional Chinese Pharmacy.

Chinese herbal medicines may seem divorced from the lives of the younger generation, but in fact they remain closely connected to us. “Back in the days before con­venience stores, herbal pharmacies were like today’s 7-­Elevens, selling virtually everything needed for daily life,” says Huang. Her daughter Liao Ting-yen, who now runs the business, notes the many things sold at herbal pharmacies: Job’s-tears milk, which you would drink in the morning; white pepper, often used for home cooking; the spice pouches needed to make braised pork or tea eggs; and the Chinese yams, lotus seeds, prickly waterlily seeds, and ­poria fungus used in sishen (“four gods” or “four herbs”) soup. There was also sour plum drink, which people consumed to cool off in summer, and snow fungus soup with lotus seeds, which people drank to improve their health in autumn.

Walking into Huang Chang Sheng today, you can occasionally see wrapping papers for herbal medicine preparations laid out on a long table, as the boss takes out ingredients from the drawers behind the counter and distributes them onto the papers pinch by pinch, then folds the papers into pouches. The fragrance of medicinal herbs that fills the air and the ritualistic atmosphere draw elderly customers to make special trips to the pharmacy to pick up their medicine. “They feel the process imparts a sense of blessing,” says Liao.

Printed on the pink wrapping papers there are not only various archaic-looking images and slogans to do with medi­cinal ingredients, but a concise explanation of the method of preparation. The five steps listed basically add up to this: place the ingredients in the inner pot of a rice cooker, cover them with water, add two cups of water to the outer pot, and hit the “on” button.

Huang Chang Sheng still uses traditional methods to process their herbal ingredients. “The most important effects of processing are to clean the medicinal ingredients and to modify their pharmacological properties, so that they produce the best medicinal effect.” While chatting with customers Liao often shares her knowledge of herbal medicines, in hopes of bringing them back into the daily lives of ordinary people.

Huang Chang Sheng makes preparing herbal medicines as simple as using a point-and-shoot camera. To make it easier for foreign visitors to feel comfortable with the ingredients used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the pharmacy has also developed a number of diverse products such as spice packets for mulled wine. Japanese customers especially love bathing products, and Huang Chang Sheng has come out with foot bathing packets, TCM bath packets, antibacterial bath packets, medicinal bath packets and tonic food packets for women who have recently given birth, and bath packets for newborns. Westerners are also curious about Chinese spices, and find the spice pouches used for Taiwanese-­style braising especially interesting. It is easy for Westerners to accept herbal medicine packets because consuming them is like drinking herbal tea, which is culturally familiar.

Mother and daughter Huang Xiuzhen (left) and Liao Ting-yen (right) are working hard to bring Chinese medicinal herbs back into ordinary people’s lives.

Older customers make a special trip to Huang Chang Sheng Traditional Chinese Pharmacy to see their prescriptions being made up. The ritualistic process imparts a benevolent atmosphere.

Huang Chang Sheng makes packets of all kinds of materials, including spices for mulled wine, tonic foods, medicinal baths, and foot baths, staying in touch with the habits of modern people.

The tradition of Lunar New Year foods

When people from Tong’an arrived in Dadaocheng back in the day, they realized the area’s potential as a port and started trading across the Taiwan Strait. From then on, merchants of all kinds gathered in the area, and anyone wanting to trade in dried food and groceries was sure to come to Dihua Street. The family of Lee Rih-sheng is one example.

Lee’s grandfather began to make a living on Dihua Street in his early teens, and later the whole family moved there. After Lee’s mother ­married into the family, she learned how to do business from her parents-in-law and in 1986 founded the Lee Rih Sheng Company, named after her son. Lee Rih-sheng, who returned home a few years ago to take over the family firm, talks about his memories of Dihua Street: “When I was small I felt that this area was very tradi­tional, unlike bright, flashy Taipei.” He adds: “Living in this neighborhood, neighbors know every household and people greet each other. It’s hard to find this kind of place in Taipei. Also, after six at night there is no one around, as everyone is resting.”

But it is very different around the Lunar New Year. Lee says, “We get busy two or three months before­hand laying in products.” At other times of the year shops display all manner of items on the covered sidewalk, but when the Lunar New Year arrives it looks like shops are overflowing with dried foods, adding to the festive atmosphere.

We assumed that Western visitors would be unfamiliar with dried foods and have no understanding of mullet roe. But Lee says that drying is used worldwide as a method of food preservation, and mullet roe is a familiar food in both East and West. It is used in French and Italian cuisine, though it is processed differently, being fully dried then ground into powder and used as a condiment to add to a dish’s aroma. Lee Rih Sheng’s signature product is wild mullet roe, and the company emphasizes that only Taiwan’s unique handcrafted curing process can produce its distinctive flavor. Taiwan’s terroir provides a topic for dialogue with the world, for food is the easiest way to build bridges. Thus Taiwanese mullet roe can open up exchanges between East and West.

Dried foods are traditionally an important part of Lunar New Year’s Eve meals in Taiwan, but the younger generation, who don’t cook at home so much, feel less affinity for these items. Lee says his company must teach customers how to prepare dried foods to make New Year’s dinner. “In a lot of families people only sit down to eat after the microwave oven beeps!” he says jokingly. But it used to be different. In the past, the whole family would gradually gather in the afternoon and everyone would work to prepare the food while chatting together. It is this kind of atmosphere that makes up the tradition that Lee wants to preserve.

The decor of the entryway to the Lee Rih Sheng Company tells you right away that this is a shop that mainly sells seafood as well as dried foodstuffs.

Mullet roe is used in cuisine outside of Taiwan too, but Lee Rih-sheng emphasizes that only Taiwan’s unique handcrafted curing process can produce the distinctive flavor of local mullet roe.

Lee Rih-sheng hopes to revitalize the tradition of Lunar New Year’s Eve family dinners by getting more people to buy the products traditionally associated with the old-fashioned holiday customs.

Taipei Flower Market

Enjoying the four seasons of Taiwan

The flower auctions begin at 4 a.m. At five or six, flower shop owners, floral designers, and flower-arranging school proprietors begin to arrive to purchase the flowers they need from dealers’ stalls. Ordinary citizens also come by to pick out some decorative blossoms to brighten up their daily lives. On the dot of noon, the flower dealers shut up shop.

Betty Huang, general manager of the Taiwan Floriculture Development Association, is our guide. She explains: “The Taipei Flower Market is the largest retail and wholesale flower market in Taiwan, with more than 200 businesses. About 80% of the flowers sold are grown domestically, while about 20% are imported.” Flowers come from all over Taiwan, but mainly from Taichung, Changhua, Nantou, Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan. Autumn to winter is peak season for flowers, whereas the intense heat of summer is unfavorable for flower production. That’s why at that time of year you often see flowers from overseas that are brought in to meet demand.

Huang has been in the flower industry for over 30 years. “The biggest consumption of flowers in Taiwan,” she says, “is for events at temples, accounting for more than 30%. At the Lunar New Year, Taiwanese go to temples to pray on New Year’s Day and the 15th day of the new year, and businesspeople also pray there on the second day of the new year. They all want to use flowers.”

Describing how the market has changed over time, Huang observes: “Traditionally the main flowers were the likes of chrysanthemums, roses, and gladiolas, and the main colors were red, white, yellow, and purple. But over the past decade or so, many new flowers have come to the fore, such as lisianthus, Oncidium orchids, zinnia, and African daisies. The offering has become much more diverse.”

There is also an amazing abundance of flowers and other materials used to coordinate with the main flowers in arrangements. In the past asparagus fern and ­baby’s breath were mainly used, but today vendors offer a wide variety of plants including eucalyptus, monstera, Sprenger’s asparagus fern, globe thistle, and bird’s-nest fern. Indeed, almost every vendor has various types of greenery that you can’t even name.

Huang, who often plays host to groups of flower experts from abroad, says that what they generally most admire about Taiwan’s flower markets is their diversity, finding it incredible that such a small country can have so many different plants. As Huang puts it: “From the fact that even a single vendor has so many different varieties, you can get a glimpse of the richness of the industry as a whole.”

Many people visit flower markets and buy fresh flowers to brighten up their days.

Many people visit flower markets and buy fresh flowers to brighten up their days.