Chiayi Alishan Mountain and band festival

Chiayi city (嘉義市) is the main city of Chiayi County, a city located in the plains of southwestern Taiwan. Chiayi is best known as the access point of the scenic mountain area of Alishan (阿里山).

Chiayi County relies on mountains and faces the sea. Comparing with other counties and cities in Taiwan, it is the only one that has three great national scenic areas-- Alishan National Scenic Area, Silaya National Scenic Area, and Southwest Coast National Scenic Area. Chiayi County has majestic and broad scenery surrounded with hills and waters, a landscape of lakes and seascapes.

Chiayi is the city of wind music in Taiwan. The wind music festival started as a local event in 1988, when it was more like a joint performance by local wind music bands. Over the years the festival has become the most anticipated annual event in Chiayi.


How to access Chiayi
HSR Chiayi (Taibao) station is on the high-speed line between Taipei (1:30 hours, $1080) and Kaohsiung. The HSR station is over 15 km out of town, but linked to the city by the Chiayi BRT system.

Chiayi is also served by mainline TRA trains and the scenic narrow-gauge Alishan Forest Railway to Alishan, which both leave from the same station, but have separate ticketing counters. Long-distance buses leave from the terminal immediately outside the station, but local buses (notably those to nearby hot spring town Guanzihling) use the Zhongshan Rd bus terminal a few hundred meters down the street.

Chiayi Tourism
Chiayi may be identic with Alishan Forest Recreation Park. Alishan is well known for its sunrises, and on a suitable morning one can observe the sun come up on a sea of clouds in the area between Alishan and Yüshan. Alishan is one of the few places, along with Taiwan’s Sun Moon Lake, and the Mainland China attractions of the Great Wall of China, Huangshan Mountains and Taishan Mountains, that all Chinese people know even in the Mainland. Also well known all around China is the song Ālǐshān de gūniang, ‘the girls of Alishan’, referring to the beuatiful girls of the Tsou aborigial tribe.

Chiayi Park and Botanical Gardens are a lovely way to spend the afternoon. The Botanical Gardens provide pleasant trails that weave you through a large variety of plants and trees native to the area. Ponds hold koi, turtles, and frogs. You can even see hints of a traditional cemetery through the trees in some places. Chiayi park is well-maintained and serves as a center of activity for local adults and children.

Chiayi Park is located in the suburban area of the east Chiayi City. It was first developed along the hilltop landscape. Later, vacant lands to its east and west were included into the park and bridges were constructed and roads built. The park's current measure of area is over 268,000 square meters with tall old trees, waterside pavilions and houses on the terrace, fish ponds rockery decorations, and winding pathways that lead to secluded corners in the park. The design of the park makes good use of the original natural landscape of the area to create tasteful scenery and a free and unfettered ambiance.


2009 Chiayi City International Band Festival
Chiayi is famous for its wind music in Taiwan. December in Chia-Yi city, the streets are filled with wind band music activities and atmosphere, making wind band music culture literally the face of the city. The city's enthusiasm and vibes are best presented through the energy of music and creativity. Music feast is the melody of year end that Chia-Yi praises. Chia-Yi Intl. Wind Band Festival oaths to make wind band music part of people's life experiences, promoting Chia-Yi as an international city through its dedication of throwing a brilliant festival.

This year, the festival features “Cross-Boarder” as the concept, hoping to reveal Chia-Yi City’s local charm and frost the city’s look through waves of interval artistic energies; creating a new style of performance art and festival celebration spirit from crossed cultural communication. In the meanwhile; it aims to make board-crossing a life style that is ubiquitous through cultural interflows.

Musicians from home and abroad are invited to Chia-Yi to perform and mingle, their diversified performances that are both visual and audio stimulating will help achieve the festival’s goal, which is “Infinite Creativity, Everlasting Brand”.

Chia-Yi Intl. Wind Band Festival aims to make this cultural festival an unforgettable memories shared by all participants by throwing interesting and activities, promoting not only business industry in Taiwan, government officials, but also academy.



Chiayi Nightlife
Chiayi has countless tea stalls and quite a few KTV lounges, but virtually no bars in the Western sense.

Some of Recommended Chiayi City Bars/Pubs :

1. Apollo Pub.
Address : Min Dzu Road, #305

2. Blue World. Min Sheng North Road, #324.
Telp : (05) 228-4763

3. Calgary Cafe. Main hangout for foreigners, Western food, and alcohol
Address : Guo Hua Street, Lane 351, #19
Telp : (05) 227-1626.

4. Dimple Pub.
Address : Min Chuan Road, #447
Telp : (05) 225-1850

5. HERE Lounge Bar. Upscale place, very snazzy decor
Address : Lin Sen West Road, #189, 2F
Telp : (05) 224-3198

6. Ma Tou Music Pub.
Address : Chang Rong Street, #273
Telp : (05) 216-5553

7. Mask Pub.
Address : Guo Hua Street, #337-2
Telp : (05) 223-5258

8. Mermaid Piano Bar Pub
Address : Chung Hsing Road, #169
Telp : (05) 231-9900

9. Tian Yao Di Dong.
Address : Sz Wei Road, #350

Photos of Chiayi Tourist attractions and Alishan Mountain :



The Alishan forest train is one of the 3 famous mountain trains in the world. The train took us from an elevation of 30 meters to an elevation of 2216 meters passing 49 tunnels and 77 bridges on the way. With splendid mountain views and passing through 3 different climatic zones (tropical, subtropical and temperate) this train journey was pretty remarkable.



The view from the top of Tashan mountain. Elevation: 2663 meter above sea level.



The Extraterrestrial Highway. Chiayi is the centre of extraterrestrial activity in Taiwan, they have even erected a large monument to commemorate the frequent UFO visits to this lovely little corner of the country.



The LIberty Bell. A symbol of freedom and liberty for the denizons of Chiayi, the Liberty Bell is an exact duplica of its more famous cousin in the city of Brotherly Love



The Eiffel Tower. Intersection of Wenhua an Chungshan Roads.



Chiayi's Lady Liberty. Chiayi's Lady Liberty, strides high atop a traffic circle on the entrance into town from Highway 1. It is like a shining beacon for the weary expat here on business... " Give me your tired, your poor, your hungry, your oppressed huddled masses of expat labour...."



Mt Alishan. Alishan is one of Taiwan's top tourist resorts and well worth a visit. There are five things at Alishan that the tourist cannot miss: the railway, the beautiful cypress forests, the "sea of clouds," the sunrise, and the sunset.



The main street of Chiayi



Chiayi Park. The park was established in the 43rd year of Meiji Reign Period during the Japanese colonial period in the name of "Chiayi Park." The name was once changed to "Zhongshan Park" after the KMT government arrived at Taiwan, but was reinstated in 1997.



Chiayi City and Temple





Watch Typhoon Morakot, ChiaYi, Taiwan - Overtopping of Dam in South ChiaYi (August 8th, 2009) video here



Typhoon Morakot lashes out at ChiaYi, Taiwan and dumps over a meter of rain on my location, with over 2m in the mountains (and counting!). The dam on the south side of the city is overtopped and incredibly violent. A massive hydraulic jump is visible.