Watch | This Nilgiris jail once held Chinese prisoners

A video on the Nilgiris jail that once held Chinese prisoners

Did you know that this building in this picturesque setting in the hills once housed Chinese prisoners?

Located in Naduvattam, between Gudalur and Udhagamandalam in the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, it was named the “ancient sub-jail”

Its complex history goes back to the Opium Wars in the middle of the 19th Century, when Chinese prisoners captured by the British served time here

The prisoners were used as cheap labour by the British, who set up tea and cinchona plantations across the district

Today, this building is under the control of the State-run Tamil Nadu Tea Plantation Corporation, or TANTEA.

It was recently renovated at a cost of nearly ₹75 lakhs.

And there are plans to open this jail to visitors in the near future