The Lalu Sun Moon Lake Hotel in Nantou was built in 1916 during the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan.

The Lalu was originally built as a hotel in 1916 during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. After the war, it was Chiang Kai-shek's residence and was successively operated by the Taiwan Provincial Government Taiwan Travel Agency and the Kuomintang Lizhi Society. On March 3, 2002, the Lalu Hotel rebuilt by Xianglin Construction was completed. The building was designed by Kerry Hill with a total investment of NT$1.86 billion and a total floor area of ​​26,690 square meters, about 8,000 square meters.

The lobby and SPA are on the top floor, the 8th floor, and the guest rooms are on the 1st to 7th floors. The lake view suites on the 5th to 7th floors are highly recommended. The views of the courtyard suites on the 1st floor and the lakeside suites on the 2nd to 4th floors are relatively limited (the price difference between the lakeside and lake view is only about NT$2,000, but the experience is very different).

Choose a package: In 2024, the Hanbi Tower has three packages to choose from (taking the weekday lake view suite as an example): Fashion Journey (including breakfast, ¥17,700), Zen Journey (including breakfast and dinner, ¥21,200), SPA Journey (including breakfast and 70 minutes SPA, ¥24,300). Dinner (we chose Chinese) The ingredients are okay, lobster Buddha jumps over the wall and so on, but the taste and presentation are mediocre, a bit greasy, and the various black and white plates don’t look good in photos. The SPA room is very large (Figure 3), all massage beds face the lake, and there are four essential oils to choose from (there is no flower, tea, wood, etc. The smell is quite strong and I feel it is average), and the massage technique can be given 7-8 points.

Choose a room: The room number directly opposite the guest room elevator is xx01 (we stayed in 1601 on the 6th floor this time), xx08 is on the right side of xx01, and so on, and xx02 is on the left side of xx01, and so on. The best view rooms are xx01, xx08, xx02, and xx03 (don't mind facing the elevator, there is no noise at all). Rooms that are too far to the right have a green fish pond downstairs (a bit far from the blue swimming pool), and rooms that are too far to the left will have their view blocked by the building on the left (Figure 4). We stayed in 1601, which looked down to the swimming pool on the left and the fish pond on the right, which was very good for taking photos (Figure 10).

Photography: by the swimming pool on the 1st floor (Figure 14/15, the reflection of the naked tree without leaves on the far left is very beautiful), sit on the platform in the center of the swimming pool on the 1st floor and take photos of your back facing the lake (you need to wear a swimsuit to swim to the platform), feed the fish in the fish pond on the 1st floor (Figure 16, buy a bag of fish food next to the fish pond for ¥500), the pink lotus at the end of the corridor on the 8th floor (Figure 1, the third one from the left), the hot spring pool in the SPA center on the 8th floor (Figure 2), and the stone lion at the door of the lobby on the 8th floor (Figure 11, only the one on the right has coins in its mouth). Walk to the right end of the lobby on the 8th floor and you will reach the rooftop, where you can take a panoramic view of the entire Sun Moon Lake.

Activities: There is an activity sign opposite the lobby elevator. The hotel arranges different activities at different times every day and you can sign up to experience them (you need to register at the front desk before 6pm the day before the activity). In addition, across the lobby piano, there is a small corridor leading to the library, which is a good place to drink coffee, read books and take photos.