Taipei building code has required qilou — covered arcades built into the ground floor of street-facing buildings — since the Japanese era. The result is a city where the default walking condition is shaded: block after block of continuous overhead cover, privately built, publicly walkable. Dihua Street’s 1850s merchant houses are the oldest expression; the modern grid extends it everywhere.
These picks run the historic arcade, the banyan park, and the lane culture that fills the gaps between the covered avenues.