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With lucid prose and images, “city sleuth” Peter Lee conveys his experiences in the field, guiding readers on a meandering journey into the depths of the everyday, and revealing some of the most unique architecture, public art, and public transportation infrastructure of Taiwan.

Lee is never short of favorite sights to share, nor of personal interpretations of their significance. Take, for example, the Jingliao Holy Cross Church near Tainan, which took its inspiration from the temporary thatched huts erected by local farmers, or the old wooden houses in Chiayi that are being repurposed for new uses. Another example: the alternative utopia built by photographer Chen Min-Chia deep in the mountains of the northern coast, a simple cabin he calls “a working man’s place of repose”. Lee’s case studies blend the aesthetic observations of an architect with the atmosphere evoked by the site, demonstrating that architecture is a response to society, and revealing the intimate relationship between cities and the periods through which they evolve.