Datong is known as Shulin’s backyard garden. To climb this 237-meter-high mountain, you can start heading upward from Lane 45, Section 2, Baoan Street, or Lane 312, Daan Road. At the Nanliao Fude Temple beside the Earth God statue is the starting point of a trail. From the pavilion at top, you can look out over the Taipei Basin. At night the view is particularly stunning, and spring is even better when cherry trees are in blossom and you can see splashes of pink. Shulin’s mountains are close together and many peaks are connected, so after you finish hiking Datong Mountain you can continue on to Dadong, which at 405 meters is one of Taiwan’s 100 Little Peaks and Linkou’s highest mountain. It also contains a triangulation point and from the top on a clear day you can see all the way to Taoyuan International Airport and the Jhuwei coastline.
