Houtong, which prospered because of its coal industry, left behind 100 years of a coal-mining heritage after its mines closed. Since then, there has been an influx of tourists who visit to see Houtong's many cats, which has led to a new cat-village culture that has arisen in just a few years but has also reduced its connection with its mining history. This study explores tourists' perceived authenticity in Houtong and determines whether these experiences can have practical value for tourists from a postmodern perspective. A total of 400 validated questionnaires were collected from tourists in Houtong, who were asked how much money they were willing to pay for perceived authenticity. The results then revealed that for tourists, both Houtong's mining history and its cat-village culture seem to represent the real Houtong. Furthermore, by using the dichotomous choice method and logistic distribution function, the willingness to pay (WTP) of coal-mining heritage, cat-village culture, and perception of existential authenticity were estimated as NT$109.3, NT$19.1, and NT$115.3, respectively, showing that existential authenticity had the highest value for tourists, while the value of Houtong's mining heritage was five times that of its newly emerging cat village. Discriminant analysis was also used to comprehend which socioeconomic factors, travel behaviors, and other market-segmentation factors can better distinguish tourists who are willing to pay from those who are not. At the end of this study, some suggestions are put forth on this basis in an attempt to contribute to the theory of authenticity and make suitable recommendations to heritage tourism management agencies.