Montreal's Chinatown is small — a handful of blocks pinched between Old Montreal and the office towers — but it has held its ground, and four carved gates still mark where it begins. Under three kilometres, and one of the few central walks that works in rain, since it ends indoors. Best in the afternoon, with an appetite.
Start under the east paifang over Boulevard Saint-Laurent and walk into the pedestrian stretch of Rue de la Gauchetière, dense with bakeries and dumpling houses — buy an egg tart and eat it as you go. Sit a while in the little Sun-Yat-Sen Park, then walk to the south gate, where the quarter meets the glass of the Quartier international in a single frame.
Cross into the Palais des congrès for its west wall of coloured glass, which throws pools of pink and green across the floor in sun. End outside at Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle, where Riopelle's bronze fountain runs its ring of fire and mist in summer. Square-Victoria-OACI is a block away.
