Houtong Cat Village
Coordinates: 25°05′13.5″N 121°49′35.8″E / 25.087083°N 121.826611°E
The Houtong Cat Village or Houdong Cat Village (Chinese: 猴硐貓村; pinyin: Hóudòng Māo Cūn) is a village in Ruifang District, New Taipei, Taiwan famous for its cat population.
Houtong was originally called Kau-tong (Chinese: 猴洞; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: kâu-tōng; literally: "monkey cave") due to the existence of a cave inhabited by monkeys in the early days.
Houtong 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. During its prosperous years, the area produced around 220,000 tons of coal per year, the largest coal output of a single area in Taiwan. This attracted many immigrants to the area, which further spurred the town's growth to as many as 900 households 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, the area also declined. Young residents started to emigrate to look for other opportunities, and eventually only few hundred residents remained once the mining industry had died out.
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