3rd night market to take place at Christmas holidays after a huge success at the APEC Chinatown Night Market

(SAN FRANCISCO) The second Chinatown Night Market hosted by Lily Lo of BeChinatown in welcoming the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has again proved the success of the night market idea to bring in more businesses to the struggling Chinatown economy. The continuous success has inspired Lo to plan for her third night market during the Christmas holidays.

"I am still working on details for the Christians Chinatown Night Market. No dates have been picked yet," Lo, co-founder of BeChiantown and CEO of North East Community Federal Credit Union, said with excitement.

“Everyone was happy to see Chinatown full of visitors on November 10 & 11, two nights of the night market event over the weekend,” said Lo.

"Because of the overwhelming success bringing in lots of visitors to Chinatown, vendors sold out the food and drinks very quickly at both nights of the night market event. They needed to bring in more foods and drinks to the booths. Almost all restaurants and cafes in Chinatown were seen customers waiting in lines for dining," said Lo. "Shops also opened late to accommodate many visitors. All merchants were very happy too."

The APEC night market occupied two blocks of Grant Avenue, 500 and 600 blocks, over the weekend on last Friday and Saturday. Lo plans to further expand her 3rd night market during Christmas holidays from 2-block to 4-block of streets in Chinatown.

The locations will be moved from 500 and 600 blocks of Grant Avenue to the 800 and 900 blocks of Grant Avenue as well as two blocks of Waverly Place. Those 4 blocks of streets had been installed with lanterns by Lo and BeChinatown.

Night markets are not a new idea in Chinatown. There were night markets held at Portsmouth Square two to three decades ago. The night market project was dropped for a while. District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio refreshed the night market idea after visiting Taiwan in late 2022.

Lo supported the first Sunset Night Market which was held on September 15. However, Lo was not able to join the event due to lack of parking spaces around the Irving Street venue. Her experience had motivated her to organize her first night market on September 29 in celebration of the Moon Festival and the new installation of lanterns along the 400 and 500 blocks of Grant Avenue.

On September 29 night, which was also the Mid-Autumn Festival night, the night market venue was attractive with charming lanterns lighting up Grant Avenue. Although it was a one-block small night market on the 500 block of Grant Avenue, all the tasty foods and drinks from Chinatown restaurants and cafes were gone in one hour. Visitors enjoyed the foods and settings on Grant Avenue under the lanterns.

Lo was subsequently encouraged to organize a bigger night market in Chinatown after the Moon Festival. Lo trusted the APEC Summit would be a perfect timing to extend the promotion of Chinatown's long history of food and culture through night market to a larger crowd from the nation and the globe. The Chinatown Night Market in Welcoming APEC became Lo's second night market project.

There were 25 vendors participating in the APEC Chinatown Night Market. Each vendor was asked to pay $100 for the two-night event. So far all of Lo's projects on lanterns and night markets have received no public funds from the City or the State.

"For the APEC event, we have only received one donation of $3,000 from the Chen Family who is the property owner of buildings in Chinatown," Lo explained. "The Chen Family donation and the fees from the vendors were able to cover all the costs for permit applications, tents, tables, chairs and other material. All the money from selling the food tickets have directly gone to the vendors. We did not make any money from the past two rounds of night markets in Chinatown."

It was estimated over 10,000 visitors came to the 2-day night market. Vendors needed to bring in more foods and drinks for several rounds when they were sold out. Boba drinks, fruit drinks, yogurts, egg tarts, cookies, moon cakes, mochi desserts, spring rolls, fried noodles, fried chicken wings, Vietnamese noodles, roast ducks, and many more Asian foods were popular with the customers.

"My goal to host the night markets has always been the same as to bring in more people to visit, shop and dine in Chinatown. The economy in Chinatown since the pandemic has not been in good shape," Lo added.

"The huge success at the past two night markets has given the Chinatown community hopes and confidences in the future. Everyone asks me to organize the 3rd night market in Chinatown," Lo said. "The third night market in Chinatown will be in December during the Christmas holidays. More details will be announced at a later time."

Lo thanked many volunteers who contributed their ideas, time and work to bring the night market back to Chinatown. Two largest volunteer groups supporting the events were Chinatown Volunteer Coalition and Rotary Club of San Francisco Chinatown. The volunteers also helped clean up the massive garage of used cups and boxes from the night markets.

"Our members were all born and raised in Chinatown. We all hope that Chinatown will continue to be successful and carry on our culture into the future," said Janet Chen who is a member of the Rotary Club and the Chen family donate $3,000 to the latest 2-day night market.