Beijing September 17, 2008

On our first day in Beijing we visited a wonderful woman which I call the Beijing cat lady. Her name is Ding Shiyang also known as 'Grandma Ding', she lives in a small Hutong house in central Beijing and cares for 250 cats and dogs in her home. They all been brought to her by concerned locals due to the 'clean up' campaign Beijing authorities mounted earlier this year to rid the streets of any stray cats and dogs before the August Olympic Games.

Please visit her when you come to Beijing or send her some money (Bank details are in Chinese below) so she can continue to care for all these cats and dogs. She does not speak any English but this very caring and friendly woman welcomes foreigners to visit her home. The address is below in Chinese, but please give her a call +86 10 6617 3634 first to let her know that you are coming.

Don't bring any food other than cat food. We bought her some cakes from the German Bakery which she immediately fed to her cats and dogs even when we tried to gesture to her, that we brought this cakes for her.

Some other websites about her: House of Cats                                        Out of the over 350 pictures I made on our two visits to her, here are 250 of them...