ChiayiPlay Recommendations

Hui-yi Sen-huo Village at the corner of Gong-he Road and Lin-sen East Road in Chiayi's East District spans about 3.4 hectares and is Taiwan's first forest-themed creative park. The grounds preserve 29 Japanese-era cypress dormitories built between 1914 and 1943, forming Taiwan's largest and best-preserved group of wooden Japanese-style buildings - stepping in feels like traveling back to Japanese-era Alishan forestry life. Beyond historic buildings, the park offers wide lawns, ponds, and plantings, plus indoor workshops and exhibition spaces for family activities and woodworking DIY. Pet-friendly with flat lawns and paths, it suits walking dogs. Open year-round and free (10:00-18:00, no admission), it's one of Chiayi's most popular family summer-cooling and cultural-experience spots.

Xin-xin Cement Sen-huo-yuan Tourist Factory in Fan-lu Township, Chiayi County, was an abandoned cement plant transformed in 2020 into Taiwan's first cement-themed tourist factory. The park blends factory tours, indoor and outdoor family play zones, and creative DIY, with concrete succulent pots, Moai planters, digital interactions, ball pits, slides, and concrete-flavored soft serve plus a cafe. Admission is NT$50; free for under-2s, over-65s, and people with disabilities, and the ticket can offset some merchandise. Free parking; open Wednesday to Sunday 09:30-16:00, closed Monday and Tuesday. Great for kids to learn industrial history with creative hands-on activities - both educational and entertaining.

Du-jiao-xian (Rhinoceros Beetle) Leisure Farm in Zhong-pu Township, Chiayi County, spans about 7 hectares and is one of Chiayi's most popular family farms. The grounds offer wide grasslands, a grass-sled slope, sandpit, electric-car track, archery, and an animal feeding zone, where kids can ride ponies, feed cows and sheep, observe various small animals, and tour the insect house. The farm runs a mini-train, offers free ecological guided tours, and serves tasty fresh-milk steamed buns and creamy milk soft serve (NT$80 minimum spend in the food area). Admission is NT$150 (free under 4), with free parking. Suited to ages 3 and up, the farm offers diverse interactive experiences for families to play in nature.

Zhu-meng Sen-ju (Dream-building Forest Dwelling) sits beside Yun-shui Stream in Shen-keng Village, Zhong-pu Township, Chiayi County. Originally an abandoned betel-nut orchard, years of restoration have turned it into a nature-ecology-themed family camping park. Clean, comfortable RV trailers come with air conditioning and separate wet/dry bathrooms, plus skylights for stargazing. Activities are diverse: ecological tours, DIY crafts, tree climbing, rock climbing, lazy-river water-gun battles, ai-yu jelly DIY, and small-animal feeding, for kids and adults to experience together. An open-air restaurant serves home-style dishes featuring mountain produce so families can enjoy good food in nature. The atmosphere is warm and educational, suiting travelers seeking easy camping, family interaction, and environmental learning.

Fen-niu Paradise (formerly Lu-ying Ranch) in Zhong-pu Township, Chiayi County, is a farm-experience-themed family park. The spacious grounds feature a lawn, grass-sled slope, a two-story slide, craft workshop, and multiple animal zones (cows, ducks, rabbits, cats). Guided tours let visitors feed small animals, pick seasonal fruits, or join DIY produce-processing so kids learn farming and ecology hands-on. The park also has an observation restaurant, goose-racing, boat rides, and snack stalls selling house-made milk, yogurt, and steamed buns. Great for whole-family fun, especially school and family groups; allow about 2-3 hours.

Red-tile Cat in Shi-long Village, Zhong-pu Township, Chiayi County, is an upcycling-aesthetics experience space created by a retired couple and their three daughters. The grounds center on reuse of old objects and natural dyes made from betel-nut waste, offering plant-dyeing, eco-printing, and hand-made DIY family experiences, paired with coffee, desserts, and art exhibitions so visitors can feel eco-creative creativity and slow living in a mountain-forest setting.