Once a possession of the Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim, Darjeeling was annexed in 1849 by the British, who soon introduced tea plants to the area, jump-starting the industry that would make Darjeeling famous. Today, it has pockets that are as pleasant as when it was the hill station of choice for the British government escaping Calcutta summers.
In addition to its tea, which sometimes grows on precipitous hillsides, Darjeeling is also well-known for the Toy Train, a narrow-gauge railway formally known as the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), and beautiful summer estates once home to the British colonial elite. Because of its location, Darjeeling is populated by a variety of hill tribes and Himalayan peoples, among them Nepalese Gurkhas, Tibetans, Anglo-Indians, and Sherpas.