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The Houtong Cat Bridge was originally a pedestrian overpass built by Taiwan Railways in 1970 next to Houtong Station to serve residents of Guangfu Li’s Chetouding neighborhood. After Houtong became famous as the “Cat Village” in 2009, visitors arrived in droves, using the station bridge to reach the cat village and the coal-mining park. Complaints about the narrow, aging structure prompted the New Taipei City Government to rebuild it. A cat-themed redesign began in 2012 for the “Houtong Station Cat Village Overpass,” incorporating local suggestions and motifs of coal, cats, and tunnels to create the distinctive “Cat Bridge.” Inside are paw prints, photos, illustrations, and platforms designed for cats to walk and jump on. The bridge itself looks like a playful cat spanning the gap between station and village. Open to both people and cats, the landmark won the Public Works Golden Quality Award in 2013 and became an icon of Houtong Cat Village. After ten years of Houtong’s humid climate, rust and component failure appeared; New Taipei City’s Tourism Bureau repaired the structure, reinforcing its frame, replacing steel beams and painted aluminum panels, removing rust, repainting, upgrading lighting, and restoring cat platforms and benches. It reopened in March 2025.