Sixty Stone Mountain 六十石山

Sixty Stone mountain (aka Liushidan Mountain) is a beautiful flower and mountain landscape on the eastern flank of the eastern rift valley in Hualien County. The annual Daylily flower blooms and amazing views of the Eastern Rift Valley attract thousands of tourists each summer. Some of the picturesque and beautiful views anywhere in Taiwan can be seen from this mountain.

Background:
The main crop on Sixty Stone Mountain is the Orange Daylily (aka tawny dayliliy, hemerocallis, golden needle flower, etc.). Orange Daylily is a nutrient and iron-rich plant, and is traditionally used as a garnish, spice, and preservative. In addition it is also added  as raw materiel for rice paper and Chines medicine. You can buy dried bags of the stuff all over the mountain and surrounding areas.

According to some of the locals, Sixty Stone Mountain gets its name from the fact that instead of producing 50 stones (or dan, measure of flowers) per field, the fields on this mountain can produce 60 stones. Other people say that it is because during the Japanese Era, all the trees were cut down and there were 60 large boulders left on the mountain.

Nowadays the Mountain is a major tourist attraction, and has been highly marketed by the Taiwan tourism bureau. You can find pictures from this mountain on almost any Taiwan tourism brochure.

How to get there:
BY Car/Scooter: Take highway 9 south from Hualien. When you reach Dongzhu, there will be a sign to Sixty Stone Mountain just after the police station. The road up the mountain is small and closes after 6:00 PM. Only cars, small vans, and scooters are allowed up the road.
There are many tour groups that offer van rides up the mountain.

Hours: Technically open 24/7.

When to go: We suggest going during the Orange Daylily flowering season, which is from about July to September. If you go from 3-5 PM you should see an awesome view of the sunset if the weather is good.

​Map: Please see below:

Our Journey:

Our journey to Sixty Stone mountain was complimentary of Papago International Resort, who took us up in a van. I kind of regret doing it that way because the time was set in advance and we couldn't cancel due to weather. The weather was terrible, but not the worst ever. The van dropped us off near the top of the mountain and we began taking photos of the flowers.

Fields of Daylilies with the observation tower in the background.

Endless sea of flowers.

The sign says: "Liushidan Mountain rises to an elevation of about 800 meters in the Coastal Mountain Range, to the east of Zhutian Village in Fuli Township. The slopes of the mountain provide space for 300 hectares of daylily fields. This is one of the two major daylily-growing areas in Hualien County, the other being Chike Mountain. As part of the gradual transformation of the area from the production of economic crops to the development of tourism, the East Rift Valley National Scenic Area Headquarters has built 10 pavilions and named them using various nicknames for the the daylily or other alluring appelations. One example is the Yellow Blossom Pavilion, which takes not only a nickname but also the form of the daylily."

Looking back toward the fields from the viewing tower.

It was raining hard pretty much the whole time. But that didn't stop us from enjoying what view there was. The best view is actually from the hill in the background, but our driver didn't want to take us up that high. Another downfall of being on a tour.

View of tea and daylily fields against a backdrop of the east rift valley which was covered in mist. At least we didn't encounter thick fog, which happens here sometimes.

Another view of the fields and flowers further down the road.

View of the Eastern Rift Valley from the parking lot. Imagine what this would look like with perfect weather!

Another viewing pavilion further down the mountain.

Check some drone footage! Luckily the rain let up for a few shots.

Last view of the rift valley looking north before we ended our trip.
If you go during some nice weather, I guarantee you will get way better photos than I did. Hopefully we can take a trip back and I can update this blog with some better pictures.
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