In the context of climate change, the outdoor thermal environment is essential for urban health, particularly in hot and humid climate zones. In most cities in southern China, traditional shophouse neighbourhoods are regarded as a reference for climate-responsive urban morphology because multiple shading strategies are integrated, including deep canyons, semi-open arcades, and vegetation. In total, four shading strategies, namely, the height-to-width ratio of canyons and arcades, tree coverage area, and orientation, are employed in this study to compare their cooling efficiency in street canyons during summer daytime. The ENVI-met is employed for the microclimatic simulations and validated by site measurement data. The impact of varying sky view factor on the physiologically equivalent temperature was quantified to assess the cooling efficiency of each shading strategy. Our results demonstrate that the cooling efficiency of orientations varies significantly with sky view factor and is negatively associated with pedestrian thermal comfort in alleys, but positive in street canyons with arcades and trees. Varying the height-to-width ratio of canyons in arcade streets presents the best cooling efficiency, except in the east-west orientation. Shading by arcades shows a slightly higher cooling efficiency than tree coverage.