View Ocean Hotel

Hualien


For sea views plus a city centre location close to the night market, there's a whole row of tall, thin choices on Haibin Rd. From outside, View Ocean looks dowdier than many, but inside rooms are beautifully appointed with lots of artistic detailing, the family owners speak good English, the lobby is packed with curiosities and there's a super-sweet back garden.

Third-floor rooms are cheaper as the views are obstructed. Weekend prices are around 25% higher.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Hualien attractions

1. Hualien Railway Culture Park

0.32 MILES

Worth a five-minute look, this area's main sight is a 1932 wooden courtyard building containing a fairly basic history of the East Coast Railway since…

2. Pine Garden

0.79 MILES

Set in a graceful garden that's all a-twitter with birdsong, this 1940s concrete building was used by the Japanese military to wine and pleasure their…

3. Martyr's Shrine

0.96 MILES

Designed like an antique Chinese palace, this colourfully gabled 1980s complex is set amid lush foliage on a small rise overlooking Hualien's single most…

5. Jing Si Hall

2.12 MILES

Built in 2000, this gigantic temple-cum-performance venue has a simple yet striking, white-and-grey exterior. At its tallest point, the building is…

6. Gangtiangong

2.36 MILES

Climb through a dragon's mouth into one of two spiral staircases that front this gigantic Matsu temple – the biggest in Hualien. There is particularly…

7. Fogstand

3.08 MILES

An ambitious little gallery that showcases edgy and experimental works by Taiwanese, Asian and Western artists. Fogstand also has an artists-as-resident…

8. Qixingtan

3.95 MILES

Qixingtan (Chihsingtan) is a former fishing hamlet whose few remaining, old, tin-roofed shacks are outnumbered by a gaggle of small but fanciful hotels…