The lotuses blossom most luxuriantly from June to September each year and at this time the town organizes a series of Lotus Festival activities. The First records of lotuses harvested in Water Lily Town date back at least 19 years. The town's ponds fan out over 410 hecatres of land, constituting two thirds of the island's lotus fields. The plants are harvested for ther stems, roots and cupules. The area's cultivators frown on dehydrating, soaking or bleaching the lotus root, techniques to extend it's one-week life. Taiwan has been called the Kingdom of Butterflies, with more than 400 species of butterflies in Taiwan, and 40 of them can be found nowhere else in the world. There was a time during the 1960's when thousands of workers here produced butterfly art and crafts. It is estimated that some 10 million butterflies were caught every year.