Houtong (猴硐), a small town in New Taipei City (新北市) that has become known for its large cat population, has recently been named by CNN as one of six places worldwide “where cats outshine tourist attractions.”
The town, which is encircled by hills, was once home to one of Taiwan’s major coal mines and now maintains a museum to showcase its mining heritage.
“But visitors mostly come to photograph the 120 or so playful cats, who laze around the cat village and soak up the fuss — and inevitable treats,” the article posted on CNN.com under the travel section reads. “Cats here are used to amateur paparazzi. Their portraits are all over Facebook and Flickr.”
Photo: Wang Ying-chieh, Taipei Times
Houtong, which means “monkey cave” in Chinese, got its name long ago, when it was inhabited by a large number of monkeys.
Stray cats began to move into the town in recent years and it has been nicknamed “cat village” since people found out about the cat population there.
As part of its efforts to boost local tourism, the New Taipei City Government has built a cat-friendly overpass there to facilitate interaction between cat-lovers and the animals.
According to the city’s Tourism and Travel Department, since the overpass was opened to the public in March, the number of visitors to Houtong has increased 30 percent.
Other cat-related attractions recommended by CNN include the “kitty ruins” at Largo di Torre Argentina in Rome and the Japanese cat islands of Tashirojima and Ainoshima.
The other two are the Turkey resort of Kalkan and the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Florida.
RISK FACTORS: ‘We hope people can cooperate and endure it ... it is possibly the very important last mile,’ Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung said Taiwan’s COVID-19 restrictions and mask regulations are to remain the same next month, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. The center reported 42,112 new local COVID-19 cases and 85 deaths, saying that the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has dropped to a new low this month. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said that the center is keeping COVID-19 restrictions and mask regulations the same due to the local virus situation, and an increase in the number of imported cases of the new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 of SARS-CoV-2, among other risk factors. Easing
TRAVEL CONFERENCE: Representatives from the two countries exchanged views on how to increase tourist numbers, with one identifying individual travel as a trend Taiwan and South Korea aim to increase the number of tourists traveling between the two countries to 3 million, government and tourism industry representatives said at a conference in Hsinchu City yesterday. The annual event was attended by Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯); Tourism Bureau Director-General Chang Shi-chung (張錫聰); Taiwan Visitors Association chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭); South Korean Representative to Taiwan Chung Byung-won; Yoon Ji-sook, an official at the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; and Korea Association of Travel Agents chairman Oh Chang-hee. Global tourism is expected to soon rebound to between 55 and
DAMAGE CONTROL: The KMT in a statement called the Taiwan Strait ‘international waters,’ after Alexander Huang said China had the right to claim it as internal waters Lawmakers and experts yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) envoy to the US Alexander Huang (黃介正) of acting as China’s stooge, after he said that Beijing has the right to claim waters beyond its maritime territory as its exclusive economic zone and that the US has no legal basis to assert that the Taiwan Strait is an “international waterway.” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said in an online post that most of the world considers the Strait an international waterway, adding that this is important for safeguarding Taiwan. “We have seen US warships transiting through the Taiwan Strait.
The Taichung District Court yesterday sentenced to nine years in prison an unlicensed judo coach who caused the death of a seven-year-old student after slamming him onto the ground more than a dozen times. In its decision against the coach, a man surnamed Ho (何), the court cited his lack of remorse for using excessive force against an inadequately trained child and his failure to reconcile with the parents for his role in their son’s death. Speaking on behalf of the boy’s mother, Taichung City Councilor Jacky Chen (陳清龍) said the family would appeal to a higher court. Prosecutors said that Ho on