One thing that confounds me is the layout of traditional Chinese homes. More specifically how you have to walk outside a bit to get from one room to another. In most of China it can get pretty cold, and in Taiwan there are typhoons. Doesn't seem smart to have to walk outside in a typhoon to get from your bedroom to the living room.
Of course that style of home stopped being constructed over half a century ago, but that hasn't stopped some people from trying to keep the essence alive. This picture is of an apartment building in which after the fact, one of the tenants seems to have purchased the second floor apartment as well. Instead of doing the large construction needed to put stairs inside, they put the stairs outside. It seems very odd, and it looks jarring. Also given how much it rains (let alone typhoons) it seems a bit ill-advised.
You really don't see this much. I think this is only the second time I've seen this kind of thing. It can be pretty rare though to have two floors in a building and want to make them one large apartment. Usually if somebody has more than one floor, they live on one, and rent out the others. Or if they want a large apartment They buy the top floor and then build another level on the roof, and construct some stairs inside to connect to the two. This practice is actually illegal but every top floor apartment owner has built another floor on the roof. Either to make their apartment larger, or to rent out this "roof top" apartment.
