Chinese New Year: Taiwan's renowned Shilin Night Market

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From Guangzhou to Taipei now, and Taipei is also a city with proud culinary roots. Some say the island draws in various international aspects to its recipes and cooking, yet it still manages to maintain its own distinct style. CGTN's Barnaby Lo visited the world-famous Shilin Night Market to see what was on offer there this Spring Festival.

For close to half a decade now, Cai Songtian's family has been in the food business. They started out selling snacks out of a cart, back in the day when Taipei's Shilin night market was far from the food haven it's known all over the world as now. Cai Songtian's pork rib restaurant grew just as Shilin was also becoming popular.

CAI SONG TIAN SHILIN RESTAURANT OWNER "Pork rib herbal soup is Chinese traditional food. Ours don't deviate much from how it's traditionally cooked but we add a few twists here and there and that makes our recipe special. Still, I never thought so many people will like it, to the point where we've gotten a Michelin star rating."

Michelin star or none, however, food stalls in Shilin seem to get equal attention from the night market's daily crowd of thousands. There's food for every type of taste bud and even for those who don't mind a bit of. Well, let's just say, exotic smell.

BARNABY LO TAIPEI "So I've been to Shilin Night Market many times and I've tried a lot of food here, but I've been afraid to try one food. It does stink. But let's see if it's good. Well, it's not bad."

ARTHUR YUEH TOUR GUIDE "I would say all the food you can taste here come not only from Taiwan but from all over the world. Some of the cooking material are imported from even Argentina, steaks from Australia or the United States."

And while the night market is open all year round, it gets even busier during the first day of the Lunar new year. In Taiwan, they're not only places of worship; there're also community centers, and it's no different in Shilin.

Barnaby Lo, CGTN, Taipei.