Chiayi Park is the city's best everyday green space: old trees, ponds, temple and shrine traces, morning exercise groups, and enough shade to make it useful in southern Taiwan's heat. It is not a manicured showpiece so much as a lived-in park.
The park also works as a small sightseeing cluster. The Chiayi Botanical Garden, the Sun-Shooting Tower, and remnants of the old Kagi Shrine all sit in or near the grounds.