Getting There
Chiayi is a relatively small city and its HSR (High Speed Railway) station is located about 30 minutes away from the city center (although Google Maps would say one hour and it did not know about the free shuttle).
Once you arrived at the HSR station, you can go outside and take the Chiayi BRT number 7211 or 7222. They are complimentary if you are taking HSR. The bus driver may request you to show proof of purchase, so be prepared to show the train ticket stub. As you go onboard, the bus driver will give you a special ticket which you’d need to keep and return before you get off the bus.
Food
Chiayi was featured in Netflix Street Food Episode 5. Other than Uncle Goat, most of the foods are easily accessible in downtown Chiayi.
We especially love Smartfish Fish Head Soup. If you want the backstory of this restaurant, the Netflix documentary has it in details. I will focus on the food. The soup was aromatic and sweet. There's enough meat on the fish head that you can consider it a full meal. In fact, I ordered a fish head soup and a turkey rice to share with my wife and we were both full afterwards.
This place tends to be very busy around supper, so go there for lunch or go early if you don't want to wait in the line. The staffs were excellent though and were more patient than most other busy restaurants.
Since Chaiyi is famous for its turkey rice, we went to one of the famous turkey rice restaurants for it (Chaiyi Liú Lǐ Cháng Turkey Rice (嘉義劉里長火雞肉飯)). Unfortunately, we found that the turkey rice was not particularly tasty. I found the turkeys we had in Canada during Thanksgiving or Christmas tasted better and juicier.
Tucked in a corner of a side street is this amazing soft tofu place, ā é Soy Milk and Soft Tofu (阿娥豆漿豆花). As you can see, the soft tofu was bathed in its own soy milk. They worked together to bring out the most of their flavors.
Wenhua Road Night Market
Chaiyi has a thriving night market at Wenhua Road. It is a great way to spend your first night.
Staying
In Chaiyi, we stayed at Chiayi King Hotel, which was an older hotel but was very spacious. The bed was very comfortable and the hotel staffs were very helpful. The price was reasonable and the location is excellent. I wouldn't hestitate to book this hotel again.
Itinerary
Our 2 day Chaiyi itinerary included the first day in Chaiyi and the second day in Alishan.