Gancheng ZhangjiaFeng
Darjeeling Little Train
Take a cable car ride to admire the Darjeeling Tea Plantation
Darjeeling is the capital of the Darjeeling Autonomous Region in West Bengal, India, and its name is derived from the Tibetan word meaning "Vajrayogini", and is a small mountain city close to the Himalayas. Surrounded by mountains and beautiful scenery, with an average altitude of 2134 meters and an average summer temperature of 17 degrees Celsius, the town can overlook the world's third highest peak, Gancheng Zhangjia Peak, Darjeeling black tea and Himalayan railway make Darjeeling famous in the world, as early as the British colonial era, here is a famous summer resort and tourist resort.
Darjeeling scenery
I came to Darjeeling in February 2014, this is my fifth time in India, and I have a detailed guide before coming. From Kolkata to Bagdogra, at the airport, with reference to the "Budget" raiders, the ride-hailing car for more than 1,000 rupees (that day was actually just me alone, a van, very comfortable) all the way to Darjeeling's hotel , the Dyklin Hotel, which was also booked in advance with reference to the "Budget" raiders, which is a backpacker hotel that foreign tourists like, very family-like, only 1700 rupees per night. The hotel is very high, overlooking Darjeeling Town, and can also overlook the Gancheng Zhangjia Snow Peak. There is a lot of tourist information at the front desk of the hotel and they can also help to contact the travel vehicle. I booked a vehicle at the front desk to go to tiger hill observation deck the next morning.
I stayed at the Hotel Decklin
View of the Decklin Hotel
View of Darjeeling Street from the guesthouse
At the hotel you can enjoy the scenery of Darjeeling and Gancheng Zhangjia Peak
Tiger Hill Observation Deck to see the Gancheng Zhangjia Snow Peak before and after sunrise
At 8,591 meters above sea level, Gancheng Zhangjia Peak is the third highest mountain in the world. Traveling in Darjeeling and coming to Tiger Hill to see the sunrise at Gancheng Zhangjia Snow Peak is the first choice for every visitor to Darjeeling. There is an observation deck here, the full name of the "Tiger Hill Top Sunrising View", the front of the open terrain, is the best place to see the Gancheng Zhangjia Peak.
Night view of Darjeeling in the hotel
At 4 o'clock in the morning, the Tiger Hill Observation Deck was already crowded
The next morning at 4 o'clock I drove to the observation deck, the observation deck is more than 10 kilometers away from the hotel where I live, it takes about 40 minutes by car, when I arrived here was already crowded with people, the sky was not yet light, the lights of the villages and towns under the mountain flashed, and the Gancheng Zhangjia Peak in the distant morning light was blue-purple, faintly visible, not as tall as I thought, but it was really majestic!
Gancheng Zhangjia Snow Peak in the morning light
The sun is slowly rising, and the snow peaks gradually turn red in the sunrise, which is very beautiful! Spectacular! But today's fog is too big, the sky is not clear enough, and the photos are not beautiful enough.
Ride the World Heritage Mini-Train and feel the slow speed through the crowded streets of Darjeeling
Darjeeling Railway Station
Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, one of the earliest railways in India, is still in operation today. In order to solve the freight transportation from Darjeeling to Siliguli, construction of this railway began in 1879, with a total length of about 79.29 kilometers. In 1881, the entire line from Siliguli to Darjeeling was completed and opened to traffic. The railway line climbs all the way from Siliguri at an altitude of 100 meters to Darjeeling at an altitude of 2200 meters, with a total climb of 2100 meters, and the steam locomotive with a traction force of 15 tons was made by the British Sharp, Stewart and North British machine factories between 1889 and 1925, and is still in use today, and the railway line runs a 0.6 meter narrow cabinet train. The train takes 8 to 10 hours from Siliguli to Darjeeling, with stops such as Tindharia, Kurseong, Mahanadi, Toong, Sonada and Ghoom along the way.
In 1999, UNESCO listed the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway as a World Heritage Site.
When you come to Darjeeling, be sure to experience the little train. There are two sightseeing trains from Darjeeling to Gongma every day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and it takes more than two hours to go back and forth, and the sightseeing train is also known as the "toy train", with only two cars with dozens of seats, if you want to experience it, you must book tickets in advance.
The sightseeing train braves steam, passes through the streets and alleys, and slowly moves forward with trucks and rickshaws, and there is a slightly longer stop at the Gurkha War Monument, where tourists take photos with the train and admire the Gancheng Zhangjia Peak in the distance.
Gunma railway station
The terminal station is Gongma, and the station hall is a small museum that introduces the history and lines of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway through pictures and objects.
Museum of Gunma Station
Old locomotive
Take the aerial ropeway to see darjeeling's Wanqing Tea Plantation
Take a cable car overlooking the Darjeeling Tea Plantation
Darjeeling is one of the world's well-known tea producing areas, tea gardens are distributed in more than 750-2000 meters of hillside, due to abundant rainfall, large temperature difference between day and night, high-altitude foggy climate, especially suitable for tea planting, the production of Darjeeling black tea and China Keemun black tea, Sri Lanka Uwa Ceylon black tea and called the world's three high-fragrance black tea, with noble value, known as "champagne in black tea".
The tea garden is the soul of Darjeeling, and before there was no tea garden, it was just a small and unknown mountain village.
In 1849, he was sent by the East India Company to Wuyishan to secretly buy tea seedlings and tea seeds, and hired 8 tea workers, and then shipped a large number of tea seedlings and seeds to Calcutta from 1850 to 1851, and cultivated 12,000 new tea trees, planted in Assam and Darjeeling.
Cable car ticket
Darjeeling tea plantations and villages
More than 100 years later, today's Darjeeling tea planting area has reached 17,818 hectares, Darjeeling black tea production reached 11,000 tons per year, tea has become the main economic pillar of Darjeeling, and the tea gardens that spread over the mountains have become a beautiful landscape.
Darjeeling Tea Garden
In order to facilitate sightseeing, the Indian government has also built a special ropeway. The funicular runs from North Point to the Takvar Valley Tea Plantation and takes 25 minutes each way, with only round-trip tickets. On the way, you can enjoy the scenery of tea plantations and the mist-shrouded Darjeeling Valley. The aerial cableway was shut down in 2003 due to personal injuries and injuries, and it was not reopened until 2012.
Multicultural integration
Darjeeling is also a place where multiple cultures and religions converge, and here we can see the Tibetan Buddhist lama temples and churches that we are familiar with, which is also relatively rare in other parts of India.
Lama Temple
Buddha statues in lama monasteries
church
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