Houtong Cat Village

Coordinates: 25°05′13.5″N 121°49′35.8″E / 25.087083°N 121.826611°E / 25.087083; 121.826611

Houtong Cat Village

The Houtong Cat Village (Chinese: 猴硐貓村; pinyin: Hóudòng Māo Cūn) is a village in Ruifang District, New Taipei, Taiwan famous for its cats population.^[1]

Name

Houtong was originally called Hou Dong which means monkey cave due to the existence of cave inhabited by monkeys in the early days.

History

Houtong was once a rich small mining town in Ruifang, renowned for its well-preserved railway culture which was built during the Japanese rule of Taiwan. During its prosperous years, the area produced around 220,000 tons of coal, the largest amount of coal produced in a single area in Taiwan. This used to attract many immigrants to the area which further spurred the town growth as many as 900 households and with a population of more than 6,000 people. The last facility built in the area was a coal purification factory, built in 1920.

As the coal mining industry began to decline in the 1990s, development in the area worsened. Young residents started to emigrate to look for other opportunities and only few hundred residents remained. The mining industry eventually died out.^[2]

However, things went different since 2008 in which when a cat lover organized volunteers to give abandoned cats better life. They posted the cats pictures online and received overwhelming response from other cat lovers. Soon Houtong became the center for cat lovers as the number of cats grew bigger, thus reviving the dying village into a tourist destination.

Features

The village features shops, cafes and relaxing places for tourists.

Transportation

The village is accessible from Houtong Station of Taiwan Railways Administration.^[3]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Houtong Cat Village.

• Mining in Taiwan
• List of endemic species of Taiwan

References