Cats on the Riverbank Introduction
A small and low-key tea shop, bustling with people from morning to night, located next to the moat in the center of Hsinchu City. This shop has been operating for ten years, and all the tea drinks are named by the owners themselves; it truly is a gem of Hsinchu. They do not open branch stores or franchises. I wonder how a business like this, not aimed at maximizing profits, could thrive. The two owners are native Hsinchu girls who graduated from the Chinese literature department and love cats. In the early days of the shop, they operated in tough conditions while caring for a group of stray cats by the moat, finding warmth in their companionship. Perhaps fate saw the goodness of their tea and their kind hearts, leading to their eventual success. After a little over a year of opening, they finally won the favor of students and gained attention from Japanese magazine media, allowing the cats by the river bank to be seen. If you visit the center of Hsinchu City and don’t line up for a cup of their signature drink, “Mi Gu Lu Lu,” while enjoying the scenery by the moat, then you cannot experience the youthful nostalgia like the character Lin Zhen Xin. The popular movie “Our Times” was filmed near this shop, with the beautiful historical sites of the Hsinchu City moat featured in the scenes. The taste of tea belonging to Hsinchu’s young boys and girls instantly brings back the essence of youth.
