Dihua Street is a market that is set up for Chinese New Year goodies and stuff.  It’s also the first place I saw massages with butcher knives.  Well, that’s new to me.  And look at his face.  He knows how weird it is, but he’s lovin’ it!

Aside from that, Dihua Street is awesome.  It’s not quite like a regular night market, but it’s close.  For the two weeks before Chinese New Year, it is bustling with people from allover, either shopping for New Year decorations and supplies or just to see the atmosphere.

I would highly recommend going into this with a mostly empty stomach because you get samples of everything.  And I mean everything.  You want to try four kinds of candy?  Go for it.  More candy at a different stand?  Yup.  Dried fruit and vegetables?  You got it!  Soup?  Of course!  Dried fish jerky stuff?  well, sure.  I ended up buying some dried vegetable and fruit and some weird puffy chip things.  They made for great middle of the night snacks, which I tended to be having a lot of there.

I loved Dihua Street.  It was almost a little overwhelming, though.  When we first got there we tried everything we could and kept looking around at everything.  There’s so much going on everywhere around you.  It’s definitely an experience and I would highly recommend a visit if you happen to be there around Chinese New Year.

Helpful things:

• The Chinese New Year market is only open the two weeks before the New Year.
• If you’re there the rest of the year, check it out anyways for the architecture.
• Go with an empty stomach.  There is so much stuff to try!
• Ask for samples.  We got tons here, of pretty much everything.
• It can be overwhelming, but don’t give up.  It’s a really awesome market to explore.

Have you been to Dihua Street market?  What did you think of it?  Do you want to go?