A public university with a superb countryside setting, National Chung Cheng University (CCU) is, as the crow flies, around 10 kilometers from downtown Chiayi. The 132-hectare campus, which boasts more than 200,000 trees, serves as a park for the folk of Minsyong and Chiayi City. Named for Chiang Kai-shek, Taiwan's leader from 1949 to 1975 (Chung Cheng is an honorific title for the late president), NCCU was founded in 1989.

The rural location was chosen because it offered plenty of space for future expansion; and because it could boost higher education in a region which until then lacked a university of its own. The natural environment here has been enhanced by sensitive and imaginative architecture. The buildings are elegant and varied.

The central Administration Building, for instance, is pyramid-shaped. And the road in front of it is brick rather than tarmac, because students and staff are encouraged to walk or ride bicycles instead of driving. Many soon-to-be-married couples come here for their wedding photographs. Tranquility Lake is home to swans, quails, ducks, turtles, and fish; from the arched bridge, one can look down over Chiayi City.