HOTEL ONE

(04) 2303-1234; fax (04) 3702-6666
532, YingCai (YingTsai) Road
www.hotelone.com.tw

Taichung's newest high-end hotel is located in the city's tallest skyscraper--the striking 44-floor, sail-shaped tower designed by world-renowned U.S. architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF). The 202-room hotel, managed and partly owned by Landis Hotels & Resorts, occupies the 24th through 44th floors of the building and has its own ground-floor entrance and lobby. However, guests enjoy express check-in and check-out in the privacy of their own rooms (ranging from the NT$8,500 Standard to NT$75,000 One Suite). Thanks to the building's shape, all rooms offer spectacular views of the city and about half include window-side bathrooms and bathtubs which, according to the PR assistant manager, allows guests "to relax with a view of Taichung--naked!" Other standard room amenities include a "working station" with 37-inch flat-screen TV, Sony DVD player, surround-sound system and universal plug-in station for all voltages and plugs. Guests can connect their computers to the TV, or use it for movies and video games. On the top floor, the appropriately-named Top Of One restaurant offers French cuisine from Canadian Chef Paul Image on one side and Japanese dining on the other, together with a long bar. The 28th-floor IN restaurant--under the command of Indian Chef Joseph Vaz--offers a la carte and set-menu Indian, Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese cuisine, a breakfast buffet for room guests and English high tea, while the 29th-floor Lounge One offers drinks and deejayed music.

--By Douglas Habecker, translated by Jean Huang