Because I only know the chinese name. Arcade sounds stupid like a gaming arcade.
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Only to gen Xers.
If I said there is an arcade outside the house to most English speakers I’m guessing they would have no idea what I’m talking about.
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Qi lou is a very helpful concept, indicating a particular (helpful!) architectural style in Taiwan, offering protection from sun and rain alike.
The postwar buildings that abandoned this basic building style are often what makes Taiwan a miserable place to walk around.
Guy
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In Italy we have many of these, we call them Portici. Especially in medieval cities. The city with most of them is Bologna, where you can walk anywhere in the centre without getting wet if it rains.
Love them, but in TW the floor of the qilous should be like the public pavements one, when wet they are so slippery.
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“Soportales” in Spain.
One of the key differences with the qilou is that soportales are actually beautiful XD.
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Same for most of Italian ones😂.
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The qi lou in Taiwan are beautiful too.
The problem is how locals treat them—with no apparent consequences. Here’s a vivid example from Guanxi in Hsinchu County:
Some lovely buildings along the old street, with the qi lou used by the locals as a parking lot for scooters, or as a place to dump their dumpy cars:
Some education and actual political will to put an end to these practices would definitely help.
Source of the images above: https://www.foreignersintaiwan.com/blog-370963385326684/guanxi-old-street
Guy
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Most of the old streets are destroyed, or being destroyed at the moment. It seems that Taiwanese in general just don’t care about heritage conservation.
Oh there are some remarkable conservation projects happening around the island—often related to preserving our Japanese architectural heritage. Here’s an example of a cluster, now preserved, which caught my eyes in Taitung City:
The push to preserve the “old streets” in Taiwan’s smaller towns was also absolutely a thing—but the results remain uneven, to say the least.
My view is that years of neglect and denigation of Taiwanese culture, paired with lousy municipal administration, have resulted in heaps of bad habits, including some visualized in the photos of Guanxi posted above.
It’d be nice to see those lovely spaces treated with more respect.
Guy
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I’ve thought the same thing before at the Yieng-Siyi Gate in Hsinchu.
The Yieng-Siyi Gate, or Dueng-Men Gate, completed in 1829, is a level two historic site. The Yieng-Siyi Gate is a fine example of recurring eaves architecture with the ridges of the roof turned up like the wings of swallows to accent the exquisitely carved cylindrical pipes hung from the eaves. The archway itself is built of granite while swallow bricks are laid to form the fort wall parapets.
For the Year 1999’s Beautification Project of the Yieng-Siyi Gate, a renowned Hong Kong lighting artist, Guan Yueng-Ciyuan was commissioned to decorate the Gate using his sculpture lighting technique. It highlights the beauty of this historic edifice through day and night.
Nowadays we mostly just use it as a garage for my wife’s uncle’s decrepit old blue truck.
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OK that use of Hsinchu City’s East Gate as a parking lot for a blue truck is . . . unusual. I’ve walked through there countless times and it’s not usually like that.
The whole Hsinchu City moat area seems to have been getting a renovation lately. Perhaps that’s part of what was going on. 
Guy
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The photo was from 4-5 years ago last time I was in Hsinchu, maybe things have changed since then…
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another episode of the convenience stores coffee: I-Mei foods. Never noticed the shops notwithstanding being in front of my office. Entered by chance, got an americano. Pleasantly surprised.
The best so far among non-coffee shops. Price in line with 7-11, nice body, smooth taste, very very light acidic note at the end, lingering toasted notes.
Will go there more often, they seems even to have a “premium” coffee line, might just try them for science, but the regular coffee is very decent already.
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You must have a good Imei nearby, with a decent coffee machine.
The ones in my neighbourhood treat coffee like an afterthought, with cheap and not especially clean looking espresso machines.
Guy
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the one in Nanjing East Rd Sec 5, near Nanjing Sanmin seems to be a lucky one then
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I-mei at some locations is good and has sitting areas in newer ones. An Hong Kong based guy from Italy told me they use Swiss made espresso machines at some locations, but also dependent on good staff knowing how to make the drinks. (But I go for the soft serve ice cream mostly)
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very nice discovery today, it was on my list for quite some time:
In Songshan, nice cozy cafe. The americano is strong, full bodied, and CHEAP! 40$ for medium cup!!!
The time I went a group of elders from the neighbourhood were inside having a chat and started talking to me haha, one of the elders knew some very basic Italian, I was impressed!
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This is very relaxing and cute. Hope you like it.
Ah…
Eh I’m afraid it is not clear to me which establishment you are referring to. Is it Kitchen 2?