The Lalu, Sun Moon Lake

The Lalu opened on 3 March 2002 on the Lalu peninsula of Sun Moon Lake, in Yuchi, Nantou County, in the mountains at the centre of Taiwan. It was designed by the Australian architect Kerry Hill, and its rooms, suites and villas, about a hundred in all, almost all face the lake.

The site has received guests for more than a century.

From a wooden cabin to a president's retreat

In 1901 a Japanese businessman, Ito, built a small wooden house on the shore as a holiday home and called it the Lalu, Hanbilou in Chinese. It was moved to its present position in 1919 to make way for a hydroelectric plant, and in 1923, when Crown Prince Hirohito visited Taiwan, it was rebuilt as his official residence and became a government guest house. After 1949 it was one of Chiang Kai-shek's favourite retreats, where he took holidays and received foreign heads of state.

The old building was destroyed in the earthquake of 21 September 1999. The Shining Group had bought it the year before, and spent five years and some NT$1.86 billion on the hotel that replaced it, which kept the name.

Stone, teak and water

Kerry Hill built in slate-grey stone, teak and glass, in a restrained manner that leaves the lake and the hills of the Central Mountain Range to fill the windows; the rooms have full-length balconies with daybeds, facing the hilltop Xuanguang Temple across the water. The 60-metre pool runs to the edge of the terrace and seems to fall into the lake. There are three restaurants, for Chinese, Japanese and Western food, a tea house, and a spa with lake views, whirlpools, herbal steam rooms and saunas.

The architect's other hotels across Asia, from Bangkok to Kyoto, are set out in OKYTO's portrait of Kerry Hill; for the island's other retreats, see the guide to Taiwan beyond Taipei.

Sources: The Lalu; National Central Library of Taiwan; Tatler Asia; A Hotel Life.