In the computer game Sim City 2000, players take the role of a city mayor who aims to build an ideal city that will take into account all the needs of its residents. The game attempts to be realistic, so when the population reaches a certain level, players have no choice but to establish a market.

To be sure, markets are essential ingredients in the development of an urban area, with the markets and the citizens being in a relationship like that of fish in water. It's just that the "downtown" of a city changes over time, as do the consumer habits of the residents, and if markets cannot keep up with the times, they will inevitably become irrelevant and be displaced.

Zhudong Market, Hsinchu County, has such delicious Hakka delicacies plus locally grown fruits and vegetables that organized groups of visitors from afar come here to "search for treasure."

You can understand this argument better by looking at the history of the Shuiyuan Market, located in the Gongguan commercial district on Section 4 of Roosevelt Road in Taipei City.

The original market was established in 1953. In 1977, work began to erect an administrative building on the site, during which time the market was closed. After the market-assigned the lower floors of the new building-reopened in 1980, it enjoyed a period of great vitality.

Xie Deyang, chairman of the management committee at Shuiyuan Market, who has been operating Xiang Ji Food and Drink there for more than two decades, points out that in the early days, the area across the street from the market was all businesses and residences, and people who lived there bought virtually everything they needed for daily life at the market, so it was really easy to turn a profit with all kinds of shops and market stalls. But after the government took over the land in the early 1990s for National Taiwan University, the residences and businesses were torn down and the people relocated, so a major source of the market's customers disappeared.

Another blow came with the opening of the MRT line. Businesses located in the market originally hoped that the opening of the MRT, with a stop in Gongguan, would bring more consumers to the area. The result was in fact exactly the opposite.

Xie Deyang recalls that before the MRT opened, Gongguan was second only to the Taipei main train station as a hub where commuters changed from intra-city busses to those that would take them to their homes in the suburbs. There was a long string of bus stops all along the front of the Shuiyuan Market, with people changing busses for destinations as varied as Xindian, Keelung, Zhonghe, Yonghe, and Tucheng. There were always throngs of people during the morning and evening commuting hours, and many would stop off to shop and buy their food for dinner on the way home. But once the MRT lines began to open, people could go straight from downtown Taipei to the suburbs without changing, and there was thus a sharp drop in the flow of people through Gongguan. The construction of special bus-only lanes on Roosevelt Road four years ago rubbed salt in the wound by moving the bus stops away from the sidewalk in front of the market onto special islands, so that, as Xie sighs, "People now run to the middle of the road to wait for their bus!"

Zhudong Market, Hsinchu County, has such delicious Hakka delicacies plus locally grown fruits and vegetables that organized groups of visitors from afar come here to "search for treasure."

Shifts in nodes of urban development and in transportation routes have affected traditional retail markets everywhere. But an even bigger shift has been that, with the rise of hypermarts, supermarket chains, and convenience stores, consumer habits have changed.

Older shoppers will well remember the pleasures of strolling through the marketplace: buy some veggies, the owner throws in some green onions; buy some clams and she throws in some basil; live fish cavort in tanks; fresh warm meat from pigs, cows, and chickens slaughtered that very morning is there to be sniffed and prodded; customers casually pick and choose what they want from the unpackaged produce; owners scale and cut up fish, or make other thoughtful gestures to enhance their relationships with their customers.

The Jixinghao Pork Stand, located on the second floor of the Shuiyuan Market and specializing in meat from black pigs, gives a taste of this atmosphere. Even today they go "whole hog," selling every single part of the animal from nose to tail. Whatever you want-tenderloin, ribs, stomach, liver-you got it. You can even ask the boss to reserve you a complete set of internal organs. Wizened old customers remark that by looking at the number of heads on the counter you can see how many pigs they slaughtered that day!

The first shot in the challenge to traditional markets came in 1969, when Taiwan's first supermarket opened, offering a full array of imported and domestic products including foods and household goods. In the 20 years that followed, not only did many more supermarkets open, 24-hour convenience stores sprouted up like mushrooms after a spring rain, followed later by high-volume, low-unit-cost hypermarts in the suburbs. Fighting a three-front war, traditional markets steadily have been squeezed out. And in recent years, as supermarkets in urban areas have begun copying features of traditional markets like live seafood tanks, the traditional markets' profit niches have been further eroded, and they have faded from people's daily routines.

The Huashan Market, featuring the renowned Fu-Hang Soybean Milk shop and a newly laid out common dining area on the second floor (right), has since reopening enjoyed heavy patronage every day from morning to early afternoon.

The retreat of traditional markets has been most marked in urban areas, where supermarkets and convenience stores are as commonplace as trees in a forest. In Taipei City, for example, the number of traditional retail markets has fallen from 76 a decade ago to 46 today. Some markets, because of poor business, the relocation of bridges that sheltered them, or other factors, have already closed. Others, though continuing to operate, have shrunk (for example, the Zhonglun and Xinglong markets have both closed their second floor). Of the remainder, the most dynamic is Shidong Traditional Market in Shilin.

Although Shidong, with 127 stalls on the first floor and 128 on the second, is not as big as the Huannan or Beitou markets (with 1323 and 623 stalls, respectively), it is widely considered "the slickest market in the nation." Since being established in 1992 it has never had a single unoccupied space.

Insiders suggest that the main reason that Shidong draws crowds is that it was built rather late, so the whole market has a clean, bright, well-organized feel, as well as up-to-date facilities with central air conditioning. It also boasts a full range of products including fresh seafood, poultry, half-pigs, fruits, vegetables, preserved foods, flowers, delicacies, and clothing and accessories. You could say that it is a hybrid of traditional and modern shopping environments.

However, Shidong faces more than a few tough competitors. Chow Chih-yao, chairman of the market's management committee, points out that within a one-kilometer radius of Shidong you can find Carrefour, Wellcome, Takashimaya, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, SOGO, and shopping malls of various kinds. But because the market is well maintained and the stall owners have volunteered to "work overtime," extending operating hours to 7:00 a.m to 7:00 p.m., it has been able to stay popular.

The Shuiyuan Market, located in the Gongguan commercial district, is clean and well-lit, and comes complete with air conditioning, elevator, and all the trimmings, yet it hasn't lost the human element and product freshness that are hallmarks of the traditional market. Its character is defined by its small eateries, fresh fruits and vegetables, pre-cooked foods, and tailored clothing.

Under the impetus of Shidong's example, since 2007 the Taipei City Government has invested NT$400 million in a program to modernize and renovate traditional markets. The main preoccupation has been to upgrade their physical facilities and change their ingrained image-gloomy, damp, and dirty. In addition, the Central Region Office (CRO) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs has since 2009 invested NT$3 billion under the rubric of "increasing domestic demand" to undertake renovation projects in traditional markets across the country.

"The 'market' economy is intertwined with local production, the health of communities, and the incomes of stall operators large and small, so we can't give up on it without a fight!" declares CRO director Shen Jong-chin. He says that there are 1005 publicly operated markets of various sizes across Taiwan, with about 100,000 stalls, and when you also consider that most of the goods sold in these venues come from local suppliers, about 200,000 families depend on them for their livelihood. So if you want to stimulate the local economy and provide more local jobs, you have to strongly support traditional markets.

With the government as the driving force, newly reborn "Lohas markets" have steadily opened across Taiwan these past two years. The Huashan Market, located right at the Shandao Temple stop of the MRT on Zhongxiao East Road in Taipei, is a shining example of a traditional market that has shattered its old-fashioned image.

The Huashan Market, featuring the renowned Fu-Hang Soybean Milk shop and a newly laid out common dining area on the second floor (right), has since reopening enjoyed heavy patronage every day from morning to early afternoon.

Huashan, with 30 years of history behind it, completed renovation of its first floor in October of 2008, and last year the second floor was given an NT$20 million facelift. This second floor has been redesigned to look similar to the food plaza of a big department store, with a spacious and brightly lit common seating area. It officially opened for business on December 25, 2009.

The day of the opening, Fu-Hang Soybean Milk on the second floor attracted such a crowd that there were lines down the stairs and out onto the sidewalk waiting to buy shaobing and soybean milk. Even the vendors in the marketplace were dumbstruck.

Founded in 1958, Fu-Hang has long had a quite good reputation, especially among tourists from Japan and Hong Kong. It too has had a makeover, with floor-to-ceiling transparent windows giving consumers a first-hand look at how they make their specialties.

Second-generation owner Leo Hsu says that the new "transparency" has forced the firm to spend a lot more time cleaning up and keeping the stove and kitchen spic and span. Also, the people working in the back can't dress any old way like they used to, and their white uniforms have to be sent out for dry cleaning daily. Despite the hassles, though, he is proud to have gotten a place aboard the "tourism industry" train.

To accommodate the renovation of the market, Fu-Hang Soybean Milk took the unprecedented step of halting operations for two months. Hsu didn't complain at all, giving his employees a vacation but keeping them on salary the whole time. As hoped, after reopening business was better than ever. "Every day we start at 3:00 a.m., stay open until 1:00, then by the time everything is cleaned up and packed away it is 3:00 in the afternoon, and the only thing to do is go home and 'pass out' in bed." He has even recorded an astounding weight loss of eight kilograms in one month!

For Hsu, the customers present new headaches that outweigh any ones he has over the comestibles. With newcomers pouring in from who knows where, a few of the old regulars have complained that despite living close enough to see the place from their homes, they can't eat there! Hsu has also had people call up and order 100 shaobing at a go, saying they wanted to take some with them when they went abroad. At such times, raising his eyes to the line stretching out of sight, he doesn't want to say yes, but can't really say no, and now it has gotten to the point where he is afraid to even answer the telephone!

Huashan has not only had a reformation of its physical facilities, its operational strategy also has differences from the past.

Zhudong Market, Hsinchu County, has such delicious Hakka delicacies plus locally grown fruits and vegetables that organized groups of visitors from afar come here to "search for treasure."

According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs' regulations governing retail markets, state-run markets must conform to a certain organizational framework, with eight categories: fish, poultry, meat, pre-cooked meals and drinks, clothing and accessories, grains and preserved foods, fruit and vegetables, and miscellaneous. Vendors pay the paltry sum of NT$2000 or so to the market administration office in their city or county as rent, and each market establishes its own management committee.

What's the biggest problem under those arrangements? "Unoccupied stalls are the bane of traditional markets," says Wu Ju-fang, director of Huashan's management committee. In the past there were people who regularly paid the rent on stalls just to keep them to themselves, but for long periods did no business there, giving the markets a stagnant, empty feeling, and standing in the way of more vital businesspeople who could bring the markets back to life. Huashan's management committee spent half a year trying to persuade these absentee renters to vacate, but it wasn't until the intervention of the Taipei City Department of Economic Development, which paid NT$600,000 per space to reclaim the right to use them, that the empty stalls could be recovered.

Having reclaimed the unoccupied spaces, Huashan decided to combine them all to create, on the first floor, a "creative flea market" and, on the second, a common seating area for diners. At a stroke they resolved the long-standing problem of wasted space and quickly gained in popularity.

The new Huashan first floor is arranged with one central square of vendors surrounded by a walkway and then another concentric square of stands around that. The outside square consists of traditional market stalwarts like fruits and vegetables, poultry, meat, and flowers, plus various miscellaneous stands including Xi-Le Egg Tarts and Lama Ruwey. The interior square includes hand-made soap, hand-painted silk cloth, jewelry, and other "creative flea market" items. Putting farm produce next to creative art may seem like a clash of civilizations, so how is it working out in practice? This is still the trial period-only the future will tell for sure.

No matter what, notes Wu Ju-fang, thanks in large part to the drawing power of Fu-Hang, there are now four times as many visitors to the market as there were before. Also, because there are so many educational institutions in the Zhongzheng District surrounding the market, and the tourist-heavy Taipei Main Train Station is not far away, it may be possible to develop new kinds of customers with an alternative "Taiwanese traditional market" experience.

Zhudong Market, Hsinchu County, has such delicious Hakka delicacies plus locally grown fruits and vegetables that organized groups of visitors from afar come here to "search for treasure."

Huashan is by no means unique in relying on one main draw to stay popular. "If traditional markets are to find a foothold in modern society, the best weapon will be foods and beverages that are unique or exceptional." Xie Deyang, chairman of the Shuiyan Market management committee, observes that if you look along the streets and in the malls, you will see that the food and beverage industry is dominated by formulaic chain stores. Those who have something different to offer but can't afford to pay the high rents have no choice but to leave the field to the big players. But thanks to refurbished markets, which offer good locations and low rents, not only can old-established vendors shine even more, but skilled newcomers with some unusual idea can also afford to try their hand.

Making pre-cooked foods the centerpiece of market appeal is by no means limited to urban areas; all across Taiwan there are "renowned stalls" that attract people from far and wide. For example, at the Central Market in Zhudong, in Hsinchu County, a number of vendors have become nationally known for their Hakka delicacies such as flat noodles, vegetable buns, short rice noodles ("rat-tail noodles"), sweet soup with rice balls, glutinous rice pastries, and braised duck in red rice wine.

Peng Ji Noodles is one of the food stands that make Zhudong famous. In business for over 40 years, it sells mainly wonton, flat noodles, rice noodles, pig intestine, brawn, and similar "little dishes." From 6:30 a.m., when it opens for business, to early afternoon, seats are very hard to find. Sometimes the stall will sell their whole day's stock of wonton so fast they have to close up early.

The Huashan Market, featuring the renowned Fu-Hang Soybean Milk shop and a newly laid out common dining area on the second floor (right), has since reopening enjoyed heavy patronage every day from morning to early afternoon.

In order to attract consumers back to traditional markets, the Taipei City Market Administration Office (MAO) has been working with the management associations of all the markets in order to make breakthroughs in existing operational strategies and keep up with changing times. Specific ideas differ depending on the circumstances of the individual market.

Liu Chung-wei, an inspector in the Taipei MAO's Retail Market Section, notes that the MAO has continually encouraged those vendors who only open for "morning markets" to change their hours. For example, one feasible idea would be to also have "dusk markets" to meet the needs of working women.

He also points to the Xihu Market, the only market in all of Taipei built right over an MRT station, as another case. Because the fresh foods section is on the first floor, while the restaurants and pre-cooked food stalls are on the second, when the fresh foods section closes after lunch, the whole place looks deserted. Consumers who pass by on the street don't have the slightest idea that the second floor is still open for business. He is convinced that if the fresh foods section can be persuaded to extend their hours to match those of commuters, the market will be much more competitive as a whole.

Besides the fact that each market is groping toward transformation differently depending upon circumstances, the Taipei MAO has also, beginning two years ago, held a "traditional market festival" at regular intervals, collectively marketing the markets through exhibitions, sales, and popular voting for people's favorites.

The "stellar stall" Internet balloting held last year attracted 410,000 votes as netizens showed great enthusiasm for the idea. It is estimated that business increased by 10% overall as a result. The voting was divided into four categories: eateries, pre-cooked food, fresh food, and clothing and accessories. Each of the top three vote getters in each category was given a banner proclaiming it a "stellar stall." Last year, for example, the main theme of the pre-cooked food category was dumplings, with Shidong Market's "123 Shuijiao" coming out on top of a pack of 100 entries. After reports in the mass media, business improved to beyond their capacity to cope with it!

This year's "traditional market festival" is expected to open just before Dragon Boat Festival, which in 2010 falls on 16 June. Wang Meng-lung, section chief of the Taipei MAO's Retail Market Section, points out that besides various themed events, there will also, as usual, be online voting for "stellar stalls," so vendors all over the island are already "taking the gloves off." Some particularly avid consumers have even begun to systematically cruise markets, grading all the stands they try.

Traditional markets are striving to transform themselves, and the "Lohas market" is no longer just a dream. If you haven't strolled into a traditional market in a long time, find a free day and walk about, and perhaps you will discover to your delight something "fresh" very close to home... and heart!

 

Zhudong Market, Hsinchu County, has such delicious Hakka delicacies plus locally grown fruits and vegetables that organized groups of visitors from afar come here to "search for treasure."