Chinatown and the Quartier international
The paifang gates, the small old food blocks, and the coloured glass of the Palais des congrès. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. The east paifang gate
Start at the green-and-red gate over Boulevard Saint-Laurent — one of four paifang (ceremonial gates) marking the edges of a small but stubborn Chinatown. Stand under it and look down the pedestrian stretch of La Gauchetière before you walk in.

2. Rue de la Gauchetière
The pedestrianised spine, narrow and lined with bakeries, herbalists and dumpling houses. Buy a steamed bun or an egg tart from a bakery counter and eat it walking — the street is short and dense and rewards a slow lap.

3. Sun-Yat-Sen Park
A small paved square folded into the quarter, with a pavilion and seating — a place to sit with whatever you bought on La Gauchetière. Quiet between meal rushes; the heart of the neighbourhood despite its size.

4. The south paifang gate
Walk down to the gate on the southern edge, where Chinatown runs up against the office towers of the Quartier international. The contrast — carved gate, glass tower behind — is the whole story of this walk in one frame.

5. Palais des congrès
The convention centre's west wall is a curtain of coloured glass — pink, green, yellow, blue — that throws pools of colour across the white interior floor when the sun's out. Walk through the lobby; it's open and free, and the light is the reason to go in.

6. Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle
End at the square outside the Palais, built around Riopelle's bronze fountain-sculpture La Joute, which runs a ring of fire and mist on a timer in the warmer months. A modern full stop to a walk that began under a carved gate. Square-Victoria-OACI is a block on.

Chinatown and the Quartier international