A surfeit of cats is giving a second life to a decayed coal-mining town that last prospered in the 1970s.
Visitors’ raves on local blogs have helped draw dozens of cat lovers to fondle, frolic with and photograph the 100 or so resident felines in Houtong (侯硐), Taipei County, one of several industrial communities in decline since the nation’s railroads electrified and oil grew as a power source.
Most towns have never recovered, but this tiny community of 200 is fast reinventing itself as a cat lover’s paradise.
“It was more fun than I imagined,” said 31-year-old administrative assistant Yu Li-hsin, who visited from Taipei.
“The cats were clean and totally unafraid of people. I’ll definitely return,” Yu said.
On a recent weekday afternoon, dozens of white, black, gray and calico-colored cats wandered freely amid Houtong’s craggy byways, while visitors memorialized the scene with cellphone cameras and tickled the creatures silly with feather-tipped sticks.
The cats’ reaction seemed to range from indifference to reluctant engagement.
Locals are delighted with the tourist influx, seeing it as an antidote to Houtong’s stark decline etched in dozens of abandoned structures and unkempt overgrowth.
Indonesian-born Sumarni, 35, who married a local man six years ago, says she is grateful to the tourists for relieving the town’s isolation.
“My three-year-old daughter gets to play with some children of her age when visitors bring their kids here,” she said. “There is really not any playmate of her age in the community.”
Sumarni has also benefited financially from the tourist influx, piggybacking it to set up a profitable food stall next to her modest home.
Retiree Chan Bi-yun, 58, takes a lot of the credit for Houtong’s feline-induced rebirth.
“I started raising five cats that belonged to a neighbor who passed away nine years ago and they gave birth to more and more kitties,” she said. “Now I feed about half of Houtong’s cat population.”
Chan said most of her proteges wander freely and she provides special help only for abandoned kittens. She also gets assistance from volunteers who provide free veterinary care and cat food.
Like Sumarni, she has profited from the tourist influx, setting up a stall that sells cat-related souvenirs.
Mobile phone dangles with different feline shapes appeared to be a particularly fast mover, though cat-imprinted purses were giving them a good run for their money.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
RSS