Houtong a cat village for cats lovers

If you are in Taiwan and you are a cat lover you can find there cheap cat cafes but if you want more there is also cat village: Houtong Cat Village

Taiwan is an amazing country if you are a pet lover. When we were in Japan I wanted an experience with cats but was a little bit expensive, but here in Taiwan my dream come true really cheap. Cat cafes and cat purridise: Houtong Cat Village! Here you can have one of Taipei day trips. The timing of our trip in Taiwan wasn’t the best because in January and February it’s raining season and it’s not so good for outdoor activities. We love this cat purridise but we didn’t all the beauty because of the heavy rain.

How to get there

By Train – From Taipei Main Station, take a northbound train (except Keelung-bound trains) towards Ruifang Station. Either continue on a local train or Chu-kuang train one station further to Houtong, or transfer to the Pingxi Line and purchase a One Day Ticket for the Pingxi Line, NT$52. Afterwards, continue on to visit Shifen Waterfall and Pingxi. By Bus – From Ruifang train station, cross the street and take Bus 808 or F808 to Houtong town area.

About Houtong Village

Houdong Cat Village is a Taiwan tourist attractions, a village in Ruifang District, New Taipei, Taiwan famous for its cat population. It was once a rich small mining town in Ruifang, renowned for a well-preserved culture surrounding its railway, which was built during the Japanese rule of Taiwan. As the coal mining industry began to decline in the 1990s, the area also declined, but things started taking a turn for the better from 2008, when a local cat lover named Peggy Chien start offering abandoned cats a better life. Their efforts wasn’t in vain because people saw their pictures online and start heaving interest about. This is how Houtong became a center for cat lovers as word spread, and the number of cats living there increased – thus reviving a declining village, and transforming it into a tourist destination.

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Industrial Village

Even the mining industry is dead they didn’t forgot about that part of their history. When you arrive by train you will discover the village spit in two part. The down side, near Keelung River contains the old coal processing machinery, restaurants, visitors’ information center and an amazing riverside walkway that leads to the former miners’ dormitory. The visitors’ information centre it’s about coal mining industry, there they have a mock-up of mine and processing machinery, tools the miners used to have it and a gallery of pictures about that life that used to be.

On the left side of visitors’ centre you can go to riverside walkway. Because the weather wasn’t so friendly we only spent a few minutes for some picture. Advice: better visit when is not raining. I bet is nicer!

Cats zone

Still on down side there are plenty of cat souvenirs, restaurant but cats are hinding from rain but we know already where they are. We found them welcoming us in train station. The only one who wasn’t hinding from rain was two stray dogs. They are welcome to village also but the cats are the stars.

The commercials places like souvenirs shop and food court where ready for everybody despite of raining. Sellers are happy to serve you in specially on these weather. You can buy whatever you want, even for your cat city toys, until you will go to cat purridise zone.

You must not miss upside zone, walking zone on the hill, full of cat cafes, cats and their shelters. The black covered “cat bridge” behind the station leads to the other side: the cat village itself. You can find here a few cats hiding from rain but they are happy to be pet. Walking there during raining is a little bit sad because everything looks closed and is not. The alleys are full of painting, figures, “warnings”, but no cats. But don’t worry cats are safe, you will found them in cat cafes sleeping. What can they do during this rain?

Walking in rain is not a pleasant activity so we had to find a cat cafe. First time all of them looks close but they just lock the doors because cat were tempted to get out. If it happens to you also must knock the door and owners will open gladly for you. So don’t worry about that. We chose a random cat cafe. At that moment we were the only costumers but after us plenty of other costumers came, so definitely a cat atract. All the cats from that cat cafe were in sleepy mood, lazy or just watching the rain from the window. The atmosphere from there was so chill, perfect for a rainy day. Cats were so cute and fluffy. They didn’t ask for our attention but they enjoyed being pet and sitting in your lap. What a day, drinking a hot chocolate with a cat in your lap. While drinking our chocolate we were thinking about our cats from home.

We left from Houtong Cat Village really happy and a little sad because of the weather. If you are a cat lover this experience will never forget. It’s amazing how a village with no more opportunities change so much only because someone had compassion with stray cats. Maybe Houtong Village has nine lives like cats. We prefer to be a responsible as a pet owners, with nature, and we try to help stray animals as much as we can, but is so difficult doing that while are you traveling. Here cats are in paradise and we are so happy for them. We recomand do the same, be kind with them! Adopt, don’t shop!