Garden Night Market, Tainan

Crowds working the noodle and snack stalls at the Garden Night Market in Tainan on a May evening in 2014. It is the largest night market in Tainan, laid out in rows across an open lot, with hundreds of food, shopping and game stalls. It runs only a few nights a week: the city lists Thursday, Saturday and Sunday from 5 p.m. to midnight, and some recent guides report Fridays as well, so check the schedule before you plan around it. Tainan is Taiwan's old capital and its most celebrated snack city, and this is the place to sample a lot of it in one go: grilled chicken steak, candied guava, oyster omelets and a cup of bubble tea to carry along.