This post is published before episode 8, which I think will be the season’s finale, comes online on Nebula. So no spoilers.
The newest season of ‘Jet Lag: The Game‘ may technically be a strategy competition, but for many viewers it also feels like one of the best travel advertisements Taiwan could ask for.
Season 17, ‘Taiwan: Rail Rush‘, sends Sam Denby and Michael Downie– competing as Team Night Herons – against Ben Doyle and Adam Chase in a five-day race to claim railway stations across Taiwan.
At its core, the game is surprisingly easy to understand. Taiwan’s railway network becomes a giant board game. Every train station is a territory that can be claimed, defended or stolen.
Each team begins in Taipei with a set number of chips. To pass through a station controlled by the other team, they must spend chips to take it over. The more chips invested into a station, the harder it becomes for the rival team to reclaim it.
To earn more chips, the teams complete challenges scattered around Taiwan. Some challenges offer fixed rewards, while others allow players to “call their shot” and attempt harder tasks for bigger payouts. There are also steal challenges that take chips from the opposing team and multiplier challenges that rapidly increase a team’s balance.
The result is a constant balancing act between movement and defence. Should a team rush across the island claiming as many stations as possible? Or should they slow down and fortify strategic choke points around major cities?
That structure turns Taiwan itself into part of the strategy. Dense rail lines along the west coast allow fast expansion, while the quieter eastern routes are slower, riskier and far more punishing if something goes wrong.
For viewers, though, the game mechanics quickly become secondary to the travel itself.
Watching the teams zigzag between high-speed rail stations, mountain towns, hot spring resorts and tropical southern cities becomes a reminder of how ideal Taiwan is for independent rail travel. Distances are manageable, trains are efficient and almost every station opens onto somewhere interesting.
For travellers wondering how to explore Taiwan without a car, ‘Taiwan: Rail Rush’ accidentally offers a near-perfect starter itinerary.
Taipei: the perfect introduction to Taiwan
The season begins at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, one of the city’s best-known landmarks. The vast white-and-blue memorial complex sits at the centre of a huge public square framed by traditional Chinese-style architecture and is often one of the first stops for visitors to the Taiwanese capital.
Taipei itself becomes one of the stars of the season. Team Night Herons spend much of the early game defending northern Taiwan, meaning viewers repeatedly see the capital’s rail hubs, metro stations and surrounding neighbourhoods.
One memorable challenge takes place in Da’an Forest Park, sometimes described as Taipei’s ‘Central Park‘. Surrounded by dense apartment blocks and busy roads, the park offers shaded walking paths, ponds and birdlife in the middle of the city. It perfectly captures one of Taipei’s strengths: despite its urban intensity, green spaces are never far away.
For travellers, Taipei works best when explored through a combination of rail and wandering. The city’s metro system makes it easy to jump between temples, night markets, coffee shops and museums, while Taiwan’s famous convenience stores seem to appear outside almost every station exit.
Hsinchu and the modern face of Taiwan
As Sam and Michael reinforce their northern territory, they repeatedly travel through Hsinchu, a city many international visitors overlook.
Known as Taiwan’s semiconductor capital, Hsinchu is home to the massive Hsinchu Science Park, which helped transform Taiwan into one of the world’s most important technology producers. But beyond the tech industry, the city also offers traditional temples, old city gates and a growing café culture.
Like much of western Taiwan, Hsinchu demonstrates how seamlessly high-speed rail integrates with daily life. In ‘Taiwan: Rail Rush’, stations are not simply transit points, they are strategic assets. For travellers, they are gateways into entirely different parts of the island within less than an hour.
Taichung and Taiwan’s relaxed centre
As the game expands southward, the teams gradually move into Taichung, Taiwan’s second-largest metropolitan area.
Taichung has a noticeably slower pace than Taipei. Wide boulevards, creative districts and modern cafés have helped give the city a reputation as one of Taiwan’s most liveable urban centres. It is also a practical base for exploring central Taiwan.
Although the show focuses more on gameplay than sightseeing, the repeated station hopping in Taichung highlights something many visitors quickly discover: Taiwan’s rail system makes even spontaneous detours surprisingly easy.
Tainan: temples and street food
Ben and Adam’s aggressive southbound strategy takes them through Tainan, widely considered Taiwan’s historical and culinary capital.
If Taipei represents modern Taiwan, Tainan represents its past. Formerly the island’s capital, the city is packed with temples, narrow lanes and traces of Dutch colonial history. It is also famous for its food culture, from milkfish soup to danzai noodles and sprawling night markets.
The contrast between Tainan and Taipei is one of the pleasures of travelling across Taiwan by rail. Within just a couple of hours, the atmosphere shifts completely.
Kaohsiung and Monkey Mountain
Eventually the race reaches Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s largest southern city and one of the season’s most visually distinctive destinations.
Long associated with heavy industry and shipping, Kaohsiung has spent years reinventing itself through waterfront redevelopment, art spaces and cultural projects. The city’s relaxed atmosphere and tropical climate give it a very different energy from Taipei.
One of episode 3’s standout moments takes Ben and Adam to Shoushan National Nature Park, better known as Monkey Mountain.
The hillside park is famous for its population of Taiwanese macaques, hiking trails and panoramic views over Kaohsiung Harbour. Watching the pair complete a monkey-themed challenge there feels less like a game show and more like a reminder to actually add the location to your Taiwan itinerary.
Monkey Mountain also captures one of Taiwan’s greatest travel strengths: nature is never far from the city. Within a short journey from central Kaohsiung, travellers can suddenly find themselves in subtropical forest overlooking the sea.
Another challenge takes place near the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, part of the city’s growing arts and cultural scene.
Eastern Taiwan: the island’s most scenic railway journey
The most beautiful stretches of the season arrive when Ben and Adam head onto Taiwan’s eastern rail corridor.
Eastern Taiwan feels completely different from the densely populated west coast. Mountains rise directly beside the Pacific Ocean, while railway lines curve through valleys, rice fields and coastal cliffs.
The teams travel through places such as Yuli and Jiaoxi, both of which deserve far more international attention than they typically receive.
Yuli sits in the East Rift Valley and is surrounded by cycling routes, farmland and mountain scenery. Jiaoxi, meanwhile, is one of Taiwan’s best-known hot spring towns, where steaming baths and geothermal parks attract domestic tourists year-round.
For travellers, this stretch of railway may be the ultimate highlight of a Taiwan trip. Trains move more slowly here, but that is precisely the point.
Another key stop appears at Xincheng Station, the rail gateway to Taroko National Park.
Taroko’s marble canyons, suspension bridges and mountain roads have become iconic images of Taiwan tourism. Even brief glimpses during the series are enough to explain why so many travellers consider it essential.
The eastern section of the game also reveals why strategy matters so much in Rail Rush. Train frequencies are lower, distances feel longer and failed challenges become far more costly.
When Ben and Adam struggle in Jiaoxi, the geography itself becomes part of the problem. Recovering from mistakes on the east coast is simply harder.
Why Taiwan feels made for rail travel
What ‘Taiwan: Rail Rush’ demonstrates better than almost any conventional travel programme is how easy Taiwan is to explore without a car.
High-speed trains connect major cities in hours. Local railways reach small towns, coastal communities and mountain gateways. Stations are usually embedded directly inside urban centres rather than stranded on the outskirts.
For travellers, this creates enormous flexibility. A morning can begin in Taipei, lunch can happen in Taichung and sunset can arrive beside the harbour in Kaohsiung.
The series may be about strategy, sabotage and station ownership, but it also unintentionally showcases Taiwan as one of the world’s great rail-travel destinations.
Let’s go in 2026?
Taiwan is on my personal radar for later this year, but I don’t dare to book. Firstly because my employer must approve (or not) my vacation request. I will know more in a few months.
Secondly I’m keeping an eye on world events. Will there be affordable flights? Will activities – fuel! – in Taiwan be compromised? How is the Strait of Hormuz crisis evolving?
I visited Taiwan for the first time in 2017. It was there Danny suggested we’d start a travel blog, which became Trip By Trip. Actually, we decided on the name and the platform, WordPress, there.
But I didn’t really blog about Taiwan then.
