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Photo: lienyuan lee, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
In the middle of the lake. Lalu (lit. "Lake Island") is the name the Thao tribe, the original inhabitants of the area, gave to this sacred land, though it was changed to Guanghua (光華 or "Glorious China") during Chiang Kai-shek's rule of Taiwan. After 1999's September 21 earthquake the Taiwanese government, attempting to show greater respect and political awareness towards the Thao, reverted the island's name back to its original Lalu.
Lalu Island is a small island in Sun Moon Lake, Yuchi Township, Nantou County, Taiwan. The island used to be much bigger, separating the lake into a part shaped like crescent moon and another part shaped like a round sun. When the island was still bigger, people lived on it; in fact, the locals called it "Pearl Mountain"(Chinese: 珠仔山 or 珠嶼; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chu-á-sū / Chu-sū) ever since the Qing dynasty. Under Japanese rule, the island was renamed "Jade Island" , and in the 1930s, the Japanese built a dam that raised the water level in the lake and almost entirely flooded the island. After Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Government moved to Taiwan in 1949, the island was renamed Kwanghwa Island. In 1999 the island shrank as portions sank during the 1999 Jiji earthquake, which also destroyed a wedding pavilion constructed by the local government in 1978.
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Ci'entang / 慈恩塔
This Chinese style pagoda is a must and the best place to overview the lake. It's 46 m tall and was built by the Chiang Kai-shek in memory of his mother. It was completed in 1971 and sits on the hill southeast of the lake.
文武廟
The biggest temple on the northern bank of the lake.
伊達邵
The village of the Thao Aborigines, and also called Dehua village (德化社). The boat shuttle between Suishe and Ita Thao goes twice an hour, takes 10 minutes and costs $100 per person.