Once pushed along by the crowds, netizens are discussing “What’s happened to Fengjia Night Market?”

So competitive！Fengjia Night Market snack stalls apply for exclusive patents. (Photo/CTi News)

Fengjia Commercial District is a popular tourist spot in Taichung. At its peak, it used to attract over 10 million visitors a year, but visitor numbers began to decline two years ago, sparking concerns that Fengjia Night Market might be going the way of Kenting. Recently, the Facebook fan page “Passionate Taichung,” which shares food information about Taichung, sparked a wave of discussion among local netizens asking, “What’s happened to Fengjia Night Market?”

Fewer visitors are coming to Fengjia Night Market in Taichung, prompting online discussion. (Photo/Screenshot from Passionate Taichung)

The fan page recently posted a question: “What’s happened to the Fengjia Night Market that used to be packed with people?” This prompted many comments, with quite a few attributing the decline to high rents. “The rent is just too greedy,” “A ramen shop pays over NT$200,000 a month in rent,” leading to the current situation where “it’s all taken up by claw machines.”

Also, the prices of snacks aren’t cheap. In the past, Fengjia Night Market was famous for creative street food at low prices, but now “you’ll easily spend a few hundred just eating casually,” “the same things are much cheaper on Yizhong Street”; plus, there’s a high degree of product similarity along the whole street, leaving netizens lamenting, “Some shops could close and no one would even notice.”