Datong is Taipei's oldest commercial district, founded in the 1850s when the city was still a small Qing-era port on the Tamsui River. Its centrepiece is Dihua Street, a narrow two-storey arcade of red-brick and stucco shophouses that survives in unusually good condition. Walking south to north, the shops sell traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, tea, dried mushrooms, fruit and seaweed, fabric, ceramics, and (further north) art-deco-era shops in surviving Japanese-colonial buildings.
The district is at its busiest in the weeks before Lunar New Year, when the entire street transforms into a vast snack and gift market. The 1856 Xiahai City God Temple halfway up the street is one of the most actively worshipped temples in Taipei, particularly popular with worshippers seeking divine help with their romantic lives.