Taiwan - Houtong Mining Town, now with Cats

I posted some pics via my phone from my trip to the town of Houtong while I was in Taiwan two weekends ago already,  but here's the real deal!   

My friend was nice enough to arrange a trip out to the mountains to the east of Taipei.  Its nice country once you get out of the urban areas! :-P

Gets quite rural, quite fast! :-P

After about an hours drive, we were up in a valley that had a small town and a rail station... this is the town of Houtong.

Houtong (猴硐) literally means 'Monkey Cave'.... as the comedic sign reveals, this area had a coal mine which was Taiwan's main source of coal in the 20th century.  It was first developed during the Japanese colonial period and shut down in the 1970s.

But there's not much to this town anymore, just the ruins of the coal processing plant and the bridge used to carry the coal down from the mine in the nearby hillsides.

Wow, they really didn't try hard to preserve (or even dismantle and recycle) this place at all...   its actually quite dangerous.

So what's so interesting about a trashed coal processing plant?  (answer - not too much!)

  So why has this town turned into a tourist attraction? 

The answer is Cats!

http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/life/houtong-taiwans-cat-heaven-966025 The dilapidated mining town of Houtong is now drawing thousands of visitors during weekends. And it's all thanks to stray cats.

Houtong, also known as Taiwan’s “cat Mecca” for the hundred-odd cats that roam its streets, is an increasingly popular day-trip for Taiwan’s amateur photographers.

The first thing you’ll notice when you make your way into town are the cats -- more than a hundred of them, snoozing on benches, clambering up tin rooftops, or reluctantly playing with whatever enthusiastic photographers push their way. There are literally dozens and dozens of cats roaming the town... fed by tourists and locals they go wherever they want...

and sleep wherever they want...

Lots of people come just to take pictures of the cats...

The local residents and shop owners have embraced this phenomenon... I'm guessing it brings a lot more people than just the small museum they have about coal mining. :-P

Even the town mail box has gone cats...

Much like my visit to Mount Takasaki in Kyushu,  here someone has taken the trouble to identify and name at least some of the cats.   Names include 'Whitey' and 'Mountain King King', etc.

Apparently the cats don't like flash photography. :-P

Hey, who let these guys in here?  Apparently a lot of the cats get to this town when people bring them here to abandon them.   doh. 

All I could think of when I saw this was - catsthatlooklikehitler.com! :-P