Hua Lien Hotels

According to The Record of Hualien County, the place was originally called Kilai. Because Kilai (Kirai in Japanese) sounds the same as "dislike" in Japanese, the Japanese administration changed the name to Karen in the early 20th century. The Republic of China Kuomintang administration of the late 20th century promoted the Standard Mandarin Chinese reading, Hualien. In Chinese, Hualien is an approximate homonym of Huilan, which means "recurring waves (of the Pacific Ocean)".
The Spaniards tried to mine gold in Hualien in 1622. Permanent settlements began in 1851, when 2,200 Han Chinese farmers led by Huang A-fong of Taipei arrived at Fengchuan. In 1875, more farmers, led by Lin Cang-an of Yilan, settled at Fengchuan. But by the time of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), when Hualien City, along with the rest of Taiwan, was ceded to Japan, there were still not many settlers in Hualien.