Flower market better than traffic in Taipei
A sea of colourful bougainvillea
Plants and gourds to hang
Red decorations
What do you do with a huge expanse of concrete beneath a busy highway overpass in the capital of Taiwan? With a bit of lateral thinking, you can turn it into a popular flower market.
On our first full day in Taipei and, in the absence of rain, we headed off on foot to visit the Jianguo Holiday Flower Market that is open on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.
Edible options
It’s heaven for anyone who loves to garden or who simply wants to brighten their home.
In addition to a wide range of flowers, plants, trees and bonsai, people can buy all the gardening extras. There are plenty of artificial flowers, seeds, gardening tools, soils, pots, fish, pebbles, decorations and more.
Tending the poinsettias
Bamboo options
Orchids grow well in this part of the world
Poinsettias—the colourful plant that says Christmas—were widely available. One shop was selling ready-made and custom-made Christmas decorations and bouquets, but we didn’t see any Christmas trees on offer.
There was a huge temptation to buy something but, of course, we couldn’t take anything living back to Australia. That said, we did buy two sprays of orchids to brighten the apartment where we’re staying. They’ll do for a Christmas tree.
Everything in garden supplies
I reckon the market is well worth a visit. It’s open from 9am to 6pm and is located under the Jianguo elevated highway, and between Xinyi and Jianguo South Roads. The Jade Holiday Market is under the next expanse of overpass. We visited that too. Plenty of jade, gems, jewellery, statues, pottery, porcelain, pendants, trinkets and tea items to choose from, but long ago we stopped buying lots of souvenirs.
Bonsai in many sizes
You can even buy a tree
Where to next? 
Schöne Weihnachten. Wolfgang
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Thanks so much. Wishing you the same.
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Reblogged this on Blue Dragon Journal and commented:
Great way to spend a couple of hours!
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Thanks so much for the reblog. Always appreciated.
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Such colours! A bright and happy post!
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Thanks. When I downloaded the pics, I decided they looked a lot like Christmas. 🙂
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Wonderful….we find this in the New York State Fair botanical exhibits/competitions. Marvelous to experience this in a market.
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It was an amazing market with about 300 stalls. Maybe I’ll make it to the New York State Fair someday.
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Wonderful, wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Peggy and John!!!🎄🎄🎄🎅
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Wishing you the same. Look forward to more of your blog in 2020.
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That certainly cheered up a dull wet day in Beetley, Peggy. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Oh no, not another wet day? So far, we’ve been lucky with the weather here.
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How ingenious. And very colourful
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We loved all the colour. I nearly included a pic of white orchids but decided it wasn’t colourful enough.
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Unused areas can be transformed with a little thought. Used to love the Hong Kong flower market, such a delight to walk through.
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I was so impressed by the use of space. Now I want to see the Hong Kong flower market.
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The MTR to Mong Kok will get you there 🙂
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Thanks. Now I just have to get to Hong Kong.
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This market looks interesting and the jade market does also. I particularly liked the Bonsai trees of all sizes. I do like to buy a souvenir but now I try to pick a shirt rather than a trinket of some type.
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Shirts are a good option. Occasionally I buy fabric, but I find that street food makes for good memories.
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Oh WOW 😲 so beautiful!!!
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We thought so too.
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Wow for a beautiful and colorful market, Peggy 😀
I like to buy seeds and try to get them to grow in my home or garden and they don’t take up much space in the suitcase either.
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That’s a great idea for most of the world. Sadly we can’t take most seeds into Australia.
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There are several countries, as are very protective to their nature and don’t wish to let plants in, as don’t belong there naturally.
Then you need to be creative 🙂
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In Australia, the concern is more about pests that might be hitching a ride on the plants or seeds. It’s all about protecting what we already have here. So we can buy exotic plants that have been brought in through the proper channels.
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Hi Peggy, the flower market looks heavenly, love the explosion of color. I’ve always wanted a bonsai but sadly only have skills suitable for killing plantlife (yeah, even cactus and bamboo). Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and Poor John.
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I’m so glad you stopped by Stephanae. It prompted me to click back to you and discover that somehow I had stopped following you. WordPress does odd things, so I’m glad to re-connect. Happy Christmas and New Year.
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As great as it can be WordPress can also be a tad finicky at times. So happy I stopped by Peggy.
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What a lovely place to visit. beautiful.
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So glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for stopping by.
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Lovely and colourful, Peggy. Do the Taiwanese go for plastic or artificial flowers too? I always thought this was the domain of Australia. I know that cemeteries are often places where plastic flowers are waving in the wind.
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I didn’t inspect too closely, but I think there were only two stalls selling artificial flowers. Then again, maybe they are so realistic, you can’t tell.
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So luscious! Thanks for these terrific photos. 🙂
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You are most welcome. I thought the market looked so Christmasy.
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Flowers, flowers everywhere for all the eyes to see. 👁👁🍃🌸
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Yes, a sea of flowers. It was fabulous.
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LeggyPeggy,
I think Taiwan has one of the biggest wholesale markets/companies for exporting Orchids… maybe in your travels you can visit a few. Buy a Bonsai Tree and a bunch of Orchids and decorate the tree…that is, your family Christmas Tree. Nice post and seeing many colorful flowers.
Second, maybe you can get a few close up shots of foods being sold at the markets, interesting to learn if they have many veggies/fruits as we can get in NYC’s Chinatowns (Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn).
Sy S
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I would love to buy some plants here, but our quarantine regulations are so strict I wouldn’t be allowed to bring them into Australia. That means I have to love them here. And yes, I’ll be going to the food markets.
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Reblogged this on Wolf's Birding and Bonsai Blog.
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Many thanks. Always appreciate a reblog.
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Very pretty and colorful market, I am looking foward to all the fabulous markets of Asia when we visit next month. Merry Christmas to you and your family 😄
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Have a wonderful time exploring in Asia. Look forward to your posts. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
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Terrific and colorful post. Happy Holidays!
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Thanks so much. Wishing you Happy Holiday and an amazing 2020.
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This looks like just the kind of place I’d love to visit.
Things are looking pretty grim in Oz 😦
Happy holidays, and all the best for the new year Peggy.
Alison
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We’re loving Taiwan. And filled with anguish over the state of Australia. Here’s hoping for rain in 2020. Have a great holiday season.
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I love all open air /covered markets and this one looks fascinating. It was difficult imagining that all this was taking place under a motorway!
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We were surprised by how little noise and vibration there was even though there was plenty of traffic overhead.
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Thanks so much. Wishing you the same.
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This is one (other!) occasion where I would have been delighted to have the smells, not only sights, transmitted in the blog 🙂 Anything you can add about them?
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The market had a wonderful heady scent. In some places it was overpowering, but mostly it was quite pleasant.
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I love how they have made use of the space, redeeming concrete with colourful nature. Most especially, I love those bonsai.
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The use of space impresses me too. I wish I could own a bonsai, but we travel too much.
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Yes, I’ve just made a start after so many false starts due to work and holiday travel. They’re like pets.
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What a gorgeous market! I’m sure you found some sweet orchids to add special color to your Christmas. Prayin’ you had a lovely holiday! xxxxx
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Thanks so much Jean. We had a great Christmas with two lovely orchid plants to serve as a tree. Have seen another flower market that isn’t half as nice.
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Reblogged this on All About Writing and more.
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Thanks so much for the reblog. Always appreciated.
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You are welcome
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Thank you for sharing what a cool place!
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You’re welcome. Glad you like it.
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How wonderful that the gorgeous flower market inhabits the space under the overpass. Vertical real estate at its best.
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I agree. A brilliant use of space.
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Such a clever and resourceful idea to create a market in an otherwise little-used space. It’s amazing what hard thinking and good planning can come up with in crowded cities like Taipei. Wonderful photos, Peggy. I can almost smell those blooms from here. What an array of other items to browse through, too. I could happily spend some time in there.
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Such a wonderful memory. Seems like a very long time ago. I haven’t posted over the last two months, but getting in gear again.
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Did you just visited Taiwan or stayed there for awhile?
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We had two weeks in Taiwan.
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Funny, I was just thinking about Taipei and the markets. They are fun to wander around, and I actually enjoyed that more than the tourist areas.
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I agree. I’m always drawn to markets.
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