Hualien is Taiwan's largest supplier of stone materials and with the fierce competition from the Mainland, the owners are taking the creative route, in hope to sustain their businesses.

Hualien accounts for 90% of Taiwan's stone supply along with factories specializing in import and export, ranking second in the world.

For this reason, a number of stone sculptors have congregated in this area.

Hsiang Kuang-Hua, the Secretary General of the Stone Sculpture Association said that he began stone carving from junior high and after leaving the military service,has participated in many kinds of stone carving competition and has become an artist.

Artist Liu Shun-tian uses a combination of cable and stones, to create different works.

Recently, factories have set up plants in mainland China, as the many remaining factories would like to transform into artist based facilities and enter the creative industries though there are other bottlenecks that need some time to break through.