Kànzǐdǐng Fish Market 崁仔頂漁市場 is supposedly the longest-running operation of its kind in northern Taiwan. Back in the Japanese colonial era the market was located along the banks of the Xùchuān River 旭川河 in Keelung 基隆, formerly a navigable channel running through the downtown core into the harbour. The name of the market is derived from a Taiwanese Hokkien term for the stone stairs that once lined the riverbank; Kanziding literally means “top of the stairs”. The Japanese built a pier in the late 1920s, making it easy for fishermen to offload their catch next to the market, and convenient access to the railway network encouraged its growth.

View Image Details On the edge of the fish market in downtown Keelung at around 3am.

View Image Details Bright lights, big city fish market. The building on the right is Qing’an Temple, devoted to Mazu, goddess of seafarers and fishermen.

After the Chinese nationalists took over Taiwan the fish market and the rest of Keelung 基隆 continued to expand—but there wasn’t much room to grow. The topography of the area around the port is very hilly and there simply isn’t any space for the city to sprawl. As such, the new government undertook several efforts to redevelop the riverside, destroying several of the piers and filling in part of the river in the late 1950s to make more room for the market, a new police station, and other buildings.

View Image Details An immense all-night fish market in Taiwan’s seedy northern port town.

Density in the downtown core continued to increase in subsequent years, eventually leading to a far more drastic round of urban renewal. In the mid-1970s the entire length of the river from the foot of the harbour to the back of the downtown core was covered up to create more land for development. The multi-use Sāndòng Buildings 三棟大樓, completed in 1978, now occupy this space, and the river flows beneath it, in darkness. Take a stroll to the harbour and you’ll see several Japanese colonial era bridge pylons jutting out of the sidewalk—this is where the river exits into the harbour. Turn around and walk alongside the three market buildings and you’ll eventually reach where the fetid river is swallowed up by the city beneath the highway offramp at Rénwǔ Road 仁五路.

View Image Details Waiting for customers at Kanziding Fish Market.

Chances are you might smell the river at the back of the city before you see it—the amount of rotting garbage it contains is truly incredible. All that refuse collects in the forgotten spaces beneath the Sandong Buildings and, as such, there are concerns about the potential for a massive explosion from the build-up of methane and other flammable gases. Gross, huh? Nowadays there is talk about removing the aging and decrepit buildings capping the river—but we’ll just have to wait and see about that.

View Image Details Waiting for customers on the edge of Kanziding Fish Market.

View Image Details Delivery trucks picking up and dropping off around 2am. The main road running through the heart of the market is a continual traffic jam most of the night.

View Image Details Wheeling and dealing on the phone at Kanziding Fish Market.

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View Image Details Fresh fish in baskets next to a late night eatery at Kanziding Fish Market.

View Image Details A Giant Big Fish with an all-seeing eye. View Image Details A buyer squeezes a fish, presumably to check for freshness.

View Image Details Buyers congregate to assess the quality of a slab of tuna. View Image Details Red tuna vendor on the far side of the second Sandong Building.

View Image Details Making deals at Kanziding Fish Market.

View Image Details One of the buildings opposite from the second of the Sandong Buildings has old brick archways out front. This is in the very heart of the market.

View Image Details Setting up for an auction on a side street around half past two. Precisely no fucks are given around here.

Whereas Kanziding began as a simple fish market by the sandy riverbanks of Taiwan’s historic northern port town its modern incarnation is more like a grim urban dystopia: all asphalt, concrete, tile, plastic, metal, and flesh. Many of the small businesses of the market operate out of the ground floor of the three Sandong Buildings now covering the unseen river—and many more can be found along buildings on the surrounding streets. Long after dark, as the day’s catch arrives by truck, the streets become incredibly congested with vehicles of all kinds, wheeled carts, baskets, styrofoam containers, refrigerator units, tables, scales, and people—so many people. And to think, this place only gets going after midnight!

View Image Details Kanziding Fish Market at half past ten. The streets are almost completely deserted and many business owners haven’t arrived yet.

View Image Details Early deliveries begin around 11pm. There are few signs that this will become the busiest and most crowded part of a booming fish market mere hours later.

View Image Details Shipments arriving around 11pm. View Image Details Delivery trucks offloading at 11pm.

From what I’ve read and seen there is a nightly rhythm to the business of the fish market. Shops begin setting up around 10pm, the first shipments arrive around 11pm, and business commences around midnight. Wholesale buyers swoop in around 1am to make big purchases at a discount, clearing space in the crowded market, but the night is only getting started. Rush hour begins around 3am and rapid-fire auctions continue until dawn. After sunrise the vendors clean up, the shutters come down, and the market disappears, much like the hidden river that flows beneath it all.

View Image Details Perusing the offerings at Kanziding Fish Market.

View Image Details Fish balls and other hot pot goodies. View Image Details Buckets full of sea vegetables.

View Image Details Styrofoam bins full of fish. View Image Details Offloading tuna from a truck.

View Image Details A basket full of small squid. View Image Details One of many fish at Kanziding.

View Image Details Kanziding Fish Market from the ground floor of one of the Sandong Buildings.

View Image Details Wandering the crowded streets of Kanziding Fish Market.

By day there are few signs of the late night business that sprawls through the streets of the downtown core. I have been to Keelung 基隆 many times and had no idea how much activity took place on these dark streets until I booked a hotel and spent the night in the city on a whim—an experience I previously wrote about in this article. If you also spend the night you’ll have no problem finding the place—cross the downtown core and you’ll be drawn to the market like fish to an angler’s glowing lure.

View Image Details The bridge pylon marking the hidden river flowing beneath the Sandong Buildings. View Image Details There is almost no trace of Kanziding Fish Market by day. This is the heart of the market!

View Image Details Where the river disappears beneath the streets. The stench around here is atrocious. Those pillars support a highway offramp visible in the next photo. View Image Details This is the back of the Sandong Buildings, right where the river vanishes beneath the road surface seen in the previous photo.

View Image Details A closer look at the old bridge pylon. The photo is straight; it’s on a strange angle. View Image Details Dedication stone for the fish market, something I only noticed on subsequent visits.

Unsurprisingly, almost nothing has been written about this old market in English apart from this intriguing piece by Benoit Girardot, which I recommend you read. For further commentary in Chinese and many more photos have a look at these blogs here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.