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Hi Sea Floating Home Is Its Own Island, Takes Your Breath Away

One man yearned for the loneliness of the sea so he built himself a floating home on it. It’s now China’s only floating hotel with minimal capacity.
Hi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotel 18 photos
Photo: Xia Zhi/gooood.cn
Hi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotelHi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotelHi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotelHi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotelHi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotelHi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotelHi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotelHi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotelHi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotelHi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotelHi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotelHi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotelHi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotelHi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotelHi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotelHi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotelHi Sea: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum-capacity hotel
For all those times when you wished you could just pack your stuff and get away from it all, whether temporarily or for good, one man actually followed this trail of thought and did it. The result is a stunning floating home completed in 2020 called the “lonely hotel at the sea,” Hi Sea.

Hi Sea: The Floating Island is currently China’s only floating hotel, albeit with minimal capacity. It’s situated off the coast of Dongshan Island, Fujian province, about 500 meters (1,640 feet) away, completely independent and cut off from the rest of the world. It’s the perfect place to ride off the apocalypse and whatever insanity 2021 brings – on condition those back on land don’t have access to watercraft. 

Hi Sea\: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum\-capacity hotel
Photo: Xia Zhi / gooood.cn
Jokes aside, as “homemade” projects go, this is an absolute stunner. It is the brainchild of one Chinese entrepreneur, who says it started “like a seed in my heart. Like a dream, it sprouted and made utopia.” Having been brought up in the area, he developed a bond with the sea early on and would often spend days fishing and sailing.

In 2018, he and his good friend Dong Xinmeng, who also happens to be an architect, decided they should just move in together in a house they would build at sea, taking inspiration from the floating rafts local fishermen use for extended stays on water. As such, they set out to make a relatively big house, with the final construction totaling nearly 600 square meters (6,458 square feet).

It would take them more than a year and the equivalent of $61,000 to get the thing done, and it wasn’t always smooth sailing. Due to the size of the floating home, they soon learned they couldn’t build it on land and the dock wasn’t spacious enough for it, so they had to build the buoyant base and then sail out with it – and build the house at sea.

Hi Sea\: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum\-capacity hotel
Photo: Xia Zhi / gooood.cn
The result was worth the effort. Hi Sea is almost square-shaped and basked in natural light, shows equal focus on aesthetics and safety, and offers uninterrupted 360-degree views of the sea. Open the sliding glass doors that surround it, and the entire house opens up so you’ll feel like you’re floating off, albeit you’re still in your bed or on the sofa.

Materials used include steel for the structure, aluminum-magnesium-manganese and teak, and plenty of glass to allow for those breathtaking panoramic views. The roof uses materials similar to those found in airport terminals and yachts, which are acid- and corrosion-resistant. The deck is weather-resistant flooring.

Hi Sea is built around a generous living room that also incorporates the dining room and the kitchen. On each side, there’s a large guest bedroom with its own ensuite, while two open terraces provide plenty of space for anything from barbecuing to tanning and, you guessed it, fishing. Brightly lit and very elegantly furnished, Hi Sea stands out for being both minimal and extremely welcoming at the same time.

Hi Sea\: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum\-capacity hotel
Photo: Xia Zhi / gooood.cn
In the video below, the owner explains he thought he’d use the floating home as his personal retreat but, with the initial lockdowns of 2020, it became a family home for himself, the wife, and his son. Then, as word of this unique retreat spread, he started getting more queries about it, so he listed it as China’s first floating hotel. Or, simply put, “the lonely hotel at the sea.”

Though described as a completely independent island, Hi Sea is not exactly that. Power comes from the mainland, through cables winding back to the island across the seabed. The owner had issues with this at first, since passing fishermen would often unplug the cables, but this problem has since been solved.

Still, should he ever wish to relocate, he can just unplug the cables and pull out all 16 metal anchors holding it in place and have a powerful fishing boat tow it to another location.

Hi Sea\: The Floating Island is a floating home that doubles as minimum\-capacity hotel
Photo: Xia Zhi / gooood.cn
Hi Sea was designed to be sturdy and resistant to harsh weather and strong winds. However, the owner says it will most likely be blown away in a typhoon, so he’s made his peace with that. If it lasts five years, he says, he will be grateful for the time he’s had to enjoy his accomplishment.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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