Wednesday, March 5, 2025

The Cat Village (Natalie)

                                                                The Cat Village

    On Sunday, we had all planned to go to the Houtong cat village, but Ansel and Dad came down with a stomach bug and had to stay home. We decided to get out of the house and let them rest, so we headed off bright and early. To get to the village, we hopped onto the subway to the train station. After the subway, we transferred to another train which brought us to the village. Mom accidentally purchased local train tickets instead of the express train, so it took us over an hour to get there (oops!) Luckily the train ride was comfortable and above ground so we could watch the city melt away and enjoy the scenery. On the way home we took a much more comfortable (and much more direct) bus. 


    When we arrived at the village, we were immediately greeted by a black and white splotched cat, with an adorable black mouth that made him look like he had been eating a lot of blueberries. 

After we finished petting him, we crossed over the train tracks and entered the cat village. Just to be clear, there are 2 sides you can get to out of the train station. The hillside is the official cat village. On the other side the terrain is more flat. It is also more touristy, filled with shops, little restaurants and ice cream vendors. It also has a small coal mining museum which teaches visitors about the history of the village. There are cats on the touristy side, but not as many as the hillside. After we finished petting the cat in the train station we immediately headed out to the hillside. It was raining, so most of the cats had taken shelter under cover. The first cat we found was a dark tabby. 

This was the first cat we gave a treat to. Charlotte and Mom found four cats in a sheltered part of the trail. There was a plumb brown and white colored feline who was very fluffy and looked like a ragdoll, as well as two skittish black cats and one calico colored kitty. 

We had pre-purchased cat treats and recommend doing that, as the treats in the village are normally overpriced. We saw many more cats, some of them skittish some bold, a variety of colors and patterns. The most common cat we saw were dark tabbies. 

                                

                

                                    

                                    

                                    

    There are certain areas in the village where you are allowed or not allowed to feed the cats. Some of the locals feed the cats at set meal times so you don't have to worry about them going hungry; it's just fun to feed them.

              

    For lunch, we stopped at one of the many small cafes at the top of the hill and ordered quiche, sandwiches, hot chocolate and salad. Then we headed over to the flat side for ice cream. After we finished with lunch and the cats, we were feeling good and still energetic, so we decided to take a bus to Jiiufen old street, a festive street full of good food and small shops. We walked 15 minutes out of the village to the bus stop. We took a bus and planned to stop at the 7 eleven but may have gotten off at the wrong stop and had to hike to the street. 

                                    

    When you first enter the street, the lighting takes a little getting used to because the roofs of the shops are so close to each other they block out the sunlight. The street is lit with red lanterns. The first thing that caught our eye was a small shop that had a wall of pet outfits including a dragon costume for a small dog or cat and little traditional pet kimonos. After looking around that shop for a while, Charlotte got hungry so Mom purchased a sweet hotdog on a stick. (Yep, that's Asia for ya. Sweet sausages are normal here). Charlotte loved it and ate the entire thing. We next stopped at a street vendor for some little bricks of tea. We also peeked into a cat themed shop. Feeling hungry, we then found a beef noodle soup place and ordered up some soup, beef rice, soup dumplings, and cucumber for dinner. We had a hard time getting home because we were a little confused by the bus system, but eventually we made it home by 7:30. 

             

                                                     

            

    I would recommend Jiiufen old street as a "After cat village" activity. The cat village (as always) gets 5 out of 5 stars! 

                                                

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