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A trip to Houtong Cat Village, Taiwan

25 September 2016 by Eileen

While I was researching what to do in Taipei, I can across a few bloggers who wrote about Houtong cat village. The reviews were quite mixed. Some people said it is quite boring while others enjoyed visiting the place. So I decided to see it for myself. What I didn’t plan for was the weather! It was raining “cats and dogs” on our visit which was not ideal! As you can imagine, if it rains, all the animals hide away. Anyway, we did get to see a few cutie cats, so read on!

houtong cat village map taiwan

The village is not too far from Taipei and it took us an hour to get there. You can either take the local train from Taipei main station or Songshan station  We tried to buy the tickets from the self-service machine but it did not show Houtong station. So instead, we joined the queue to speak with a member of staff and bought the paper ticket from the counter, which cost us NT$56.

taipei train station paper ticket

It was only after we were on the train that I realised that I didn’t buy a return ticket. Luckily, it is not necessary to purchase the paper ticket! In fact, we could use their EasyCard to pay which is similar to the Oyster card in London. There is no need to purchase the ticket thru the counter as long as your train is heading Loudong/Su’ao/Hualien/Taitung direction, then you are heading in the right direction (take Hualien/Taitung line).

houtong station
houtong cat village poster
houtong cat village deco

houtong cat village cat house

After we reached the place, the weather was very grey and dull.  Luckily, we had this cutie cat stationing itself in this box.

houtong cat village cat sleeping

The train station was well looked after with plenty of cat ornaments around the wall. There was work going on to upgrade the bridge as we came out the station. We then walked towards the hill tops to explore the area. This village used to be for coal mining and it became a cat village after a cat lover organised volunteers to look after the welfare of the stray cats. There are only a few families that live there now and they have turned the front of their house to a shop. As it was raining on the Saturday morning, there were not many shops open.  Nevertheless, the place was very welcoming and there were plenty of cat souvenirs to buy!  Also the real cats can be found everywhere, even on the shop table! You might not want to disturb their beauty sleep.

houtong cat village wall
houtong cat village cat model
houtong cat village cats at bus stop

houtong cat village cat in shop front window

Can you spot the real cat?

houtong cat village cat in store

We then walked back to the station and went over to the other side of the village.  In this part of the village, it is filled with more shops rather than houses. Besides selling cat’s souvenirs, they also sell award winning cat shaped pineapple cakes, local foods, desserts, museum, western food and many more.  I bought a range of cat wall stickers to stick on my light switch!

houtong cat village cat art
houtong cat village cafe

We sat down for some lunch and as I mentioned in my prior post, I struggled to read some of the Chinese characters. In the end, I just let the shop owner to decide for me. It was a nice meal and we paid just under NT$400.

houtong cat village local food

Then we went next door to eat the yummy mango shaved snow dessert. It had a really nice, smooth texture and was deliciously fruity!

houtong cat village mango snowflake dessert

We then walked around the museum which is located at the end of the village. I didn’t really pay attention to the museum display. I was mainly enjoying the air con and free Wi-Fi more than anything else.

houtong cat village museum

We then decided to head back to do more shopping in Taipei and to visit the night markets instead of hanging around. As the weather was so bad, there weren’t many cats hanging around. My verdict is that it is a nice village to visit but check the weather before you go to make the most of the cats.

Do check out my earlier posts on:

  • How to travel smart for first timer
  • Taoyuan Airport to Hotel
  • Taipei 101
  • Night Market

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Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Dessert

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Comments

  1. minitravellers says

    5 October 2016 at 8:21 pm

    I think all the cool cats are brilliant and what fun. It makes for loads of cool photos too. Thanks for linking up with #MondayEscapes

  2. Bumble Bee Mum says

    4 October 2016 at 8:27 am

    I think I actually like all the quirky cat decor than seeing actual cats.. Looks like a fun place to just go around taking photos of the little catty details. #MondayEscapes

  3. Anca says

    26 September 2016 at 10:24 am

    It’s a shame you didn’t see more cats. I’ve been to a cat cafe recently and I enjoyed it a lot, I will visit another one soon with my husband, as he wasn’t able to come with me last time. I imagine a cat-village it’s much better if the weather is good.

Trackbacks

  1. Taiwanese Snack at Night Market in Taipei - ET Speaks From Home says:
    6 January 2022 at 9:03 pm

    […] Cat Village […]

  2. How to Travel Smart in Taipei for first timer - ET Speaks From Home says:
    6 January 2022 at 5:18 pm

    […] Houtong Cat Village […]

  3. A trip to Taipei 101 World Financial Center - ET Speaks From Home says:
    7 November 2020 at 11:01 pm

    […] You could easily spend hours in this massive place and if you were there at night, you could also walk to Linjiang Street and Tonghua night market for a quick bite!  These two night markets are quite small and in the same area.  There are a lot of their local dishes to try.  In my later post, I will share with you a list of the night markets we visited and a visit to their Cat Village! […]

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Welcome to ET Speaks From Home. My name is Eileen, mother of two children aged 17 and 16 with visual impairment. We've been online since 2012 and continue to grow. I love to cook, craft, DIY, write about Chinese Culture and YouTube reviews.
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Shortlisted Britmums Brilliance in Blogging Awards (BiBs) Video 2014 Read More…

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