Lehua Night Market in Yonghe, New Taipei City (Chinese: 樂華夜市; pinyin: Lèhuá Yèshì)

Compilation of clips of Lehua Night Market in New Taipei City, Taiwan from Images By Kenny on Vimeo.

I've been living in the Yonghe District, New Taipei City for about eight of my nine years in Taiwan. One of the best places to go around Yonghe is the Lehua Night Market.

The 30-year-old night market has a great mix of everything from food to clothes. The awesome and interesting street food at vendors here includes fried chicken steaks, oyster omelets, tempura, mochi, almond tofu, almond milk, shaved ice, and rice cakes. A relatively new addition here is the beef cubes cooked with a blowtorch, which is apparently a Taiwanese traditional food (well, as traditional as anything involving a blowtorch can be). As with most night markets, the vendors prepare the food right in front of you.

Taiwanese Hakka mochi dessert

© Photographer: Imagesbykenny | Agency: Dreamstime.com

If you not into street food, there are also many restaurants, including good pasta and steak restaurants. On a side note, a night market is not a place you'd usually go to eat steak (Although the one in the night market is one of the best in Yonghe), but if you do want to, I suggest going to the actual steak restaurant instead of eating steak at the NT$100-steak night market stands; unless you really like inedible sinew.

Besides the snacks and street food, there are also many clothes shops, small arcades, and grocery stores, as well as seemingly out of place convenience stores and retail chain stores.

The market is pretty packed over weekends, but not quite as much as Shida, Raohe, or Shilin. Most of the stores and stalls are open from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. There is a Party World KTV right next to it if you want to stay out after your visit.

The night market is easy to get to.

By MRT: Go to Dingxi MRT Station, go out exit 1, turn left and walk down Yonghe Road, and you will see the Lehua night market entrance. It's about a five minute walk.

By bus: Buses 5, 57, 214, 227, 250, and 304 all stop at the Party World KTV next to the night market. Buses 706, 297, 249, 262, 624, and 670 all stop at bus stops close by.

Address: YǒngPíng Rd, Yonghe District, New Taipei City, Taiwan 234

 

Have you ever been to Lehua Night Market? Tell me about your experience there in the comments below.


Shutterstock Lightbox for stock photos of Taiwanese night markets



To learn more about interesting places and sights to visit in Taiwan, check out my list of Places to see in Taiwan

Traditional Markets in Taiwan

Woman selling water chestnuts at a traditional market in New Taipei City

© Photographer: Kenneth Paul | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Taiwan is known mostly for its night markets, but there is another kind of market here that deserves a visit—the traditional market (or "day market") which is open from early morning until mid afternoon and sells almost completely different products to night markets.



Fruit and vegetable store at a traditional market in New Taipei City

© Photographer: Kenneth Paul | Agency: Dreamstime.com

 

The products at traditional markets are mostly fresh produce along with some street food and snacks. Although the target market for these traditional markets is mainly housewives and people shopping to cook at home, they make for an interesting excursion to experience the charm and diversity of Taiwan.

Fresh meat at a vendor at a traditional market in New Taipei City

© Photographer: Kenneth Paul | Agency: Dreamstime.com

 

Just like the night markets, they are made up mainly of street vendors, although some stores do form an integral part of some of them. About seventy to eighty percent of the vendors sell fresh fruit and vegetables; others sell fresh meat and fish, while the rest sell street food like fried chicken, tofu, and water chestnuts.

 

Fresh vegetables at a vendor at a traditional market in New Taipei City

© Photographer: Kenneth Paul | Agency: Dreamstime.com

The fruit and vegetables at traditional markets are usually quite a bit cheaper than conventional stores or supermarkets as well as being fresher.
 

Fresh meat at a vendor at a traditional market in New Taipei City

© Photographer: Kenneth Paul | Agency: Dreamstime.com

 

If you get the chance, go and take a stroll through one of these and see a side of Taiwan many tourists miss.

If you need help finding a traditional market on your trip, drop me a comment below, and I'll help you find one.

Woman buying street food from a vendor at a traditional market

© Photographer: Kenneth Paul | Agency: Dreamstime.com

 

More of my photos of traditional and night markets in Taiwan can be found here:

Stock photos of traditional and night markets in Taiwan

To learn more about interesting places and sights to visit in Taiwan, check out my list of Places to see in Taiwan



Examples of My Workflow with Actor Headshots

Headshot shoot for an actor in Taipei

 Headshot sessions can be done in the studio or on location. Personally, I prefer location shoots for corporate headshots to give them an environmental portrait look. But I prefer studio shoots for actor headshots so the focus is 100% on the face, without any distracting background elements.  

I emphasize that headshots should be fun! We are trying to capture a range of images that show your personality. There is no need for modesty, at the shoot you are the center of attention. You can relax, emote, play, goof off, and be free to step out of your comfort zone.

Setting up for the headshot session

I always set up the lighting and test exposures with a gray card before the actor arrives. Having people wait to be photographed while you set up lights sometimes makes the subject nervous, impatient, or fidgety; none of these are good for the shoot.

For actor headshots I keep the light soft and even. Dramatic lighting is great for portraits but casting directors want to see faces not lighting. I position the key light in a brolly box or shoot through umbrella slightly off center to the actor's head to keep the lighting even but still retain definition. I use a white or silver reflector as a fill; usually just below chest height. I keep both of these light sources as close as possible to the actor's face for soft flattering light.

There are two strobes with modifiers lighting the white background with black V-flats stopping direct light from these hitting the subject and white V-flats on each side of the actor to keep the lighting even around the face.

For headshots, I use a Canon 70-200 f2.8 L telephoto lens which compresses the distance to the subject and is more flattering to facial features.

Posing for head shot in photoshoot

 

The headshot shoot

Getting a good headshot goes beyond technical ability. The most important element to me is understanding my subject, the roles and characters they play, and their expectations of the picture. So before the session, I'll discuss the goals of the headshot with the talent to get an idea of the style required.

JJ is a Belgian-Chinese actor, animator, and martial artist. He has acted in several short films in Taiwan. He tends to play the villain role, so we went for more ominous-looking headshots to show off his bad ass side. I usually suggest sticking to head and shoulder shots for actor's portfolios as this is what casting directors want to see. In JJ's case, he also wanted to show his martial artist side, so we included a few shots to show these poses along with the appropriate clothing. JJ also wanted to have shots with and without facial hair, so we shot the first half with facial hair, then he shaved and we took more shots of his clean-shaven look.

Adding in some drama to show acting talent

Brandon is an American actor, comedian, and singer with a big warm personality. To me, Brandon looks like a young Mickey Rourke. His experience on stage showed as he was automatically at ease in front of the camera. This comfort, confidence, and relaxed attitude translates well on camera and greatly improves the quality of the headshots.

Brandon mostly wanted to show his potential as a comedian. We went with suits for clothing to give a polished professional look, but kept most of the poses fun and whimsical to show off his comedic expressiveness.    

Brandon, an actor in Taiwan in headshot session

Proofing Gallery for the Headshots

The headshot shoot is the fun part of having new headshots taken. The difficult (and most difficult part) is choosing the right images from the online proofing gallery. It's important to choose the ones that represent you as an actor. I suggest asking advice from friends and family when picking these to get an idea of how others see the "real" you. Below is an example of a proofing gallery from JJ's shoot.

Proofing gallery for headshots

Retouching Headshots

Headshots for actors are meant to represent what you look like in person. So I do not do high-end fashion style retouching. I first remove temporary imperfections, such as redness in the eyes, blemishes, stray hairs, etc. Then I soften dark shadows, complexions, and wrinkles and bring out features like the eyes, but I do not remove permanent facial features like moles and scars. 

 If you are an actor in Taiwan, and looking for a headshot, check out my headshot packages for actors.

Feitsui Reservoir in the Pingling District

After leaving Shiding, I was still intent on getting to Shifen before the light faded.  Shifen appeared to be on highway 106 after Pinglin. However, when I reached the Pinglin District, I realized I had gone onto Route 9 at some point as I was only 16 kilometers away from Xindian.

The Pinglin District (坪林區) is the third largest district in New Taipei City, Taiwan. It's a rural area in the mountains which connect to Yilan County on the east coast. It took about 20 minutes to get there from Shiding by scooter. I think this was Yongan village.



Buddhist Guanyin Statues protecting a dangerous part of the road to Pinglin

I decided that rather than backtrack and try find the route to Shifen, I'd have a look at the beautiful reservoir with an emerald surface I saw from the road. There were no safe places to stop along the highway, but I finally found an entrance to the reservoir itself.

It turned out to be the  Feitsui Reservoir, which  flows all the way from the Fetsui Dam (翡翠水庫)  in the Shiding District.  The Feitsui Dam spans the Xindian River and is one of two major reservoirs supplying water to the Taipei-Tamsui-Taoyuan region. The other is Shimen Dam in Taoyuan County. This hiking and bicycling area around Pinglin is one of the few places the reservoir is publicly accessible.

The enchanting views of these serpentine bright emerald green waters among the steep hills and tea farms is quite spectacular.

 To get there directly from Taipei, ride along Route 9 from Beishin Road in Xindian. Or to go through Shenkeng, and Shifen, take Route 106 from near the Taipei Zoo in Muzha.

To learn more about interesting places and sights to visit in Taiwan, check out my list of Places to see in Taiwan