Chiayi Things To Do Guide + Photos

Chiayi in southwest Taiwan is the gateway to Alishan and a captivating city in its own right.

Nestled between Tainan and Taichung, whilst Chiayi may not be as well visited by tourists, it has some awesome attractions and a fine food scene (famous for its chicken / turkey and rice and Smart Fish restaurant).

Known as the ‘hometown’ of Taiwan Baseball, there are things to do in Chiayi day and night, including evening street-eats at Wenhua Road Night Market.

From Hinoki Village to cultural parks (plus the starting point of Alishan Forest Railways including the Formosensis), here is our Taiwan Chiayi itinerary and things to do in Chiayi. We last stayed in Chiayi in March 2026.

This article was originally published on 2 May 2025.

Note the HSR station is a little way away from downtown and most of the central Chiayi accommodation.

From Taipei to Chiayi, the High Speed Railway train from Taipei Main Station takes around 1 hour 27 minutes (5 stops), whilst the local ‘Tze-Chiang Limited Express’ from Taipei takes around 3 hours 30 minutes.

Chiayi is also easily accessible by train from Kaohsiung, Tainan and Taichung.

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The trip from Chiayi to Alishan can be done in several ways but perhaps the easiest and cheapest is to take the Alishan shuttle bus. We did this exact trip – check out our guide to riding on the bus and booking tickets here >

You can also take the famous Alishan Forest Railway from Chiayi Station to Fenqihu or Alishan BUT it books out weeks in advance and very quickly – but you can keep checking the website for any unsold returned tickets.

Note the Chiayi to Alishan bus is cheaper, shorter in duration plus there are several departures a day – you can also use your EasyCard to just jump aboard on quieter days.

Or try this Chiayi to Alishan group tour with Klook or Chiayi car hire.

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Some of our recommended Chiayi hotels and accommodation include:

Mid Range – Luxury
Holiday Inn Express Chiayi
Highly rated international chain hotel located behind the train station, offering a complimentary buffet breakfast. Check rates and availability on booking.com, agoda.com, expedia.com and hotels.com

Or try glamping in Chiayi in a colourful caravan >

With around 30 buildings now converted to shops, cafes and workshops, it is one of the biggest surviving Japanese style villages left in Taiwan.

After WWII, the village housed forestry workers until it was designated a listed site and converted into a cultural park around 10 years ago.

There are lots of installations and sculptures around this site, plus a koi carp pond – there is also a section where you can buy a wishing amulet, write your message and tie it up on a ‘blessing’ wall. Or hire and dress up in traditional japanese wear with this Hinoki Village Kimono rental experience >

This is a good place for Taiwan souvenir shopping in Chiayi although most of the cafes and businesses close around 6pm – so you are better going to Wenhua Night Market if you are exploring Chiayi at night.

From bao buns to fried chicken, sugar cane drinks to stinky tofu, you won’t go hungry at Wenhua Road Night Market. Food is inexpensive but if you want to sit down, head to one of the restaurants along the strip.

As well as food, there are lots of the usual Taiwan night market activities like children’s games, retro pinball arcades plus a few gachapon shops and tech / clothing shops.

Referred to as the ‘hometown’ of Taiwan baseball, the area’s ‘Kano Baseball Team, consisting of Taiwanese, indigenous and Japanese players won a historic game against the odds in the 1930s against a much more established and professional team.

They went on to become the first team in the south to win the Taiwan baseball championship – after winning, the Kano Baseball team took part in a famous victory parade from Chiayi station to the fountain you see today, marked by this amazing statue.

Began in the 1950’s and now operated by the original owner’s grand-daughter Grace Chia Hui, Smart Fish is famous for their signature fish dish – deep-fried fish head served in pork bone broth served with tofu, cabbage and black fungus.

Business was already brisk but after featuring on NETFLIX, the Smart Fish is swimming stronger than ever – and they appear to be running several businesses close to the original site. Whilst the queue can be long (and they offer takeaway), we visited around 3pm one week day afternoon and got seated straight away.

We shared a bowl of fishhead stew (NT$320), a fish and cabbage side dish (NT$120) and turkey rice (NT$40). A large Taiwan beer was NT$90 or they even have their own range of Smart Fish craft beer for NT$130 (prices correct as of our visit in March 2026).

If you like Netflix food docs, check out our guide to the time Somebody Feed Phil filmed / ate in Taipei and Keelung >

Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum

Opened in 2015 and designed by architect Kris Yao, the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum is one of Chiayi’s landmark buildings with a design influenced by traditional calligraphy ink wash paintings.

Surrounded by huge parklands and the iconic ZhiMei Bridge, NPM Southern branch features both permanent collections and temporary exhibits, taken from the Northern Branch’s collection

Inside, you’ll find a children’s museum, exhibition hall, gift shop, cafe and auditorium plus a courtyard outside with various statues.

Buy your National Palace Museum Southern Branch ticket >

Chiayi Cultural & Creative Industries Park

Taiwan is famous for its cultural parks and there are some really good ones like Huashan 1914 Creative Park in Taipei or Blueprint Cultural and Creative Park in Tainan.

However, if we are being honest, we aren’t sure about Chiayi’s Cultural Park as we visited on a weekday afternoon and there was literally one cafe open and no-one else there (well, apart from some kids practising dance moves).

We’ve included it in our Chiayi things to do guide as there is some nice street art plus we believe there are festivals and pop-up events held here at the weekends in summer – so maybe we just visited at the wrong time.

Close to Chiayi Station, this used to be an old distillery / brewery and the first in Taiwan to produce Kaoliang liquor made from sorghum grain.

Ride the Formosensis train

One of Taiwan’s top rail journeys and a scenic sightseeing train running between Chiayi and Shizilu / Fenqihu, and then onwards towards Alishan. We recently rode the Formosensis train 阿里山福森號觀光列車 and it was magical.

A luxury forest train in Taiwan with beautiful carriages, fun activities and memorable experiences, this is the best way to take the train from Chiayi along the Alishan Forest Railway line in style.

Operating since 2024 and running several services to and from Alishan, there are four different Formomensis themed experiences meaning you can go all the way from Beimen / North Gate station (Chiayi) to Alishan and back, with new things to see and do.

The old hotel Lakeshore Hotel Chiayi Beimen 煙波大飯店 嘉義北門館 next to the station is set to reopen in the summer of 2026 and will be the most convenient hotel to take Formosensis.

A luxury Taiwan train ride through the forest and up a steep mountain, Formosensis offers incredible views and fantastic service. We took a ride in March 2026 – read our Formosensis guide >

Chiayi Temples

Chiayi has lots of temples to visit, the most famous of which is City God Temple / Cheng Huang Temple, which is close to Wenhua Road Night Market.

Dating back to the early 18th century, it is one of the oldest temples in southern Taiwan and very popular with couples or those looking for love.

We visited Jiuhua Mountain Temple quite by chance – we were wandering around Chiayi’s backstreets looking for something to eat and stumbled across this huge red temple with several storeys. This is the main place of worship is Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, a Buddhist teacher and monk.

From the upper floors, you can see across Chiayi and on a clear day, look out towards the mountains.

Chiayi Park

The area’s oldest recreation ground,some of Chiayi Park’s trees are over 400 years but it became a farm around 100 years ago and then a park.

As well as being home to Chiayi Tower, Chiayi Botanical Garden and the Chiayi Relic Museum, the Chiayi City Municipal Baseball Stadium can be found nearby.

The park contains lots of relics and structures including old steam trains and old Japanese style wooden buildings – a little more modern is the Chiayi Tower, which has an observation deck at the top.

Meteor Garden Tour

In our Taiwan Travel Tips (TTT) Facebook group, one of the most common reasons to visit Chiayi is to follow in the footsteps of the famous Meteor Garden TV series, starring Barbie Hsu as Dong (who sadly passed away in 2025).

The fictional “Ying De University” from the iconic Taiwan drama was filmed at National Chung Cheng University in Chiayi – relive those finest ‘F4’ moments.

Check out this Meteor Garden sightseeing tour from Taipei >

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Chiayi Park

The area’s oldest recreation ground,some of Chiayi Park’s trees are over 400 years old but it became a farm around 100 years ago and then a park.

As well as being home to Chiayi Tower, Chiayi Botanical Garden and the Chiayi Relic Museum, the Chiayi City Municipal Baseball Stadium can be found nearby.

The park contains lots of relics and structures including old steam trains and old Japanese style wooden buildings – a little more modern is the Chiayi Tower, which has an observation deck at the top.

The Taiwan Baseball season in Chiayi usually runs from March to October with several of the major league games played at Chiayi baseball stadium.

Food in Chiayi

As we only have spent a few nights in Chiayi over three visits, we’ve mainly eaten at Wenhua Road Night Market, Smart Fish 林聰明沙鍋魚頭, a Taiwanese breakfast joint plus a couple of Japanese Taiwan chain restaurants near our ‘Chiayi Sunrise’ hotel, Marugame and Sushiro (we know, we know – we will do better next time and stay longer)!

The local Taiwanese breakfast place in Chiayi we really enjoyed was called Hongmaozi Breakfast Restaurant 紅帽子早餐店 and can be found here on Google Maps >

We loved it because the staff were as amazing as their breakfast pancakes – we ordered several pancake and biscuit items off the menu and the food was tasty and inexpensive.

Taiwanese chicken rice originated in Chiayi so you’ll see many popular chicken rice / turkey rice stalls dotted around the city. Turkey rice was introduced to feed the US Troops stationed here many decades ago.

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