Feral cats fuel tourism in Taiwanese town

Feral cats have brought new life to a Taiwanese coal-mining community that had seen better days, until tourists tuned into the tabbies and calicos that call the town home. Visitors' raves on local blogs have helped draw cat lovers to fondle, frolic and photograph the 100 or so resident felines in Houtong, one of several industrial communities in decline since Taiwan'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."

On a recent weekday afternoon, dozens of white, black, grey and calico-coloured 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 acres of unkempt overgrowth.



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 neighbour 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.