Ruisan Coal Mine (Houtong)

The Ruisan Coal Mine, located in the Houtong area of Ruifang District in New Taipei City, became, after World War II, the most productive single coal mine in Taiwan. The mine area was first developed in the 1910s by the Taiwanese mine owner Yan Yunnian with the Japanese entrepreneur Kimura Kyūtarō, and from 1918 was run by the Keelung Coal Mining Company, a joint venture with the Mitsui group. After the Houtong railway station opened in 1920, the company built a coal preparation plant beside the station, completed in March 1922, to classify and process coal, significantly accelerating production.

In 1934, when Mitsui judged the seams exhausted and gave up the workings, Li Jianxing (李建興) leased them and established the Ruisan Mining Company (瑞三鑛業公司) with his brothers. Under his management the mine expanded, and after he bought the mining rights and equipment in 1949 it became Taiwan's largest coal enterprise. Between 1946 and 1980 Ruisan produced about 6.74 million tonnes, some 5 percent of Taiwan's coal output over that period, and in 1970 it had about 1,500 employees. Women as well as men worked at the mine, the women notably sorting coal in the preparation plant.

During World War II, coal from Ruisan was a critical strategic resource for the Japanese war effort in Taiwan. Coal powered the island's industrial facilities, railway network, and shipping operations, making the mine an essential component of wartime infrastructure. In May 1940, however, the Japanese authorities arrested Li Jianxing and many of his associates on suspicion of colluding with China (the Ruifang Incident); 72 people, including one of his brothers, died in the affair.

The mine continued operations through the postwar period but eventually closed in 1990 as Taiwan's coal industry declined in the face of cheaper imported energy. The coal preparation plant and other facilities fell into disrepair. In 2005, the remaining mining structures were registered as historic buildings by the then Taipei County (now New Taipei City), recognizing their significance to Taiwan's industrial heritage.

The site has since been restored as the Houtong Coal Mine Ecological Park (猴硐煤礦博物園區). The iconic coal preparation plant underwent a three-year restoration beginning in 2019 and reopened to the public in 2022. Today, the former mining village of Houtong is also internationally famous as a cat village, drawing visitors who come to see both the feline residents and the preserved industrial heritage of Taiwan's coal mining era.