Las Vegas has its slot machines, New Zealand has its outdoor adventures, Taiwan has shrimping (釣蝦 / diao xia)!
One thing that I definitely wanted to experience in Taiwan was catching shrimp. It’s a popular activity at some night markets and various shops around larger cities where people will often congregate at to have a beer and relax.
The location that we went to had various ways that you could cook the shrimp, assuming you catch one.
There were two large ponds with moving water. This made it impossible to see where we should drop our bait.
Pricing for shrimping was done by the size of the shrimp by the hour (小時 / xiao shi) with three hours being cheaper than one. We elected to go for the larger mother shrimp (母虾 / mu xia).
Trying to delicately place bait on a hook.
After an hour, we only got one shrimp officially. The owner probably felt sorry for us as he went back and grabbed more shrimp that he threw in our net to take home.
Overall, it was a fun experience. It would probably be more fun with friends hanging out over a beer or two. Check out shrimping if you get the chance!