Calcutta: Fancy candles to sky lanterns, all with a Made in China label, are lighting up Chandni Chowk and Burrabazar in the run-up to Diwali.

LED chains - tiny lights strung with copper wires - were the most popular pick. Priced at between Rs 20-30, the chains come in various sizes - the smallest being 30ft in length and holding together 60 lights. Some stalls are selling chains as long as 150ft.

"We bought a 60ft chain with yellow and green lights," said Sarita Jaiswal from Howrah, buying Diwali stuff from shops off Ezra Street near Poddar Court with her son and nephew.

Among the other popular items were sky and room lanterns. Mohammed Anwar, who runs a stall in Chandni Chowk, has sold more than 600 lanterns since Saturday.

Some of the lanterns have images of Lakshmi painted on them.

"I had stocked up 1,000 pieces," said Anwar. The cheapest lantern was priced at Rs 150.

A trader in Chandni Chowk, who has been selling Diwali lights for more than two decades, said earthen diyas with a wick were all the rage 10 years ago. "I used to buy at least a few thousand such diyas from a supplier in Delhi."

This year, of the 2,000 diyas he has sourced, only around 100 have wicks. The rest came fitted with miniature LED lights.

On Ezra Street, the star of the show was a 4-ft replica of Eiffel Tower with miniature bulbs inside.

"This is the latest product from China. It was introduced last year and was an instant hit. We have ordered 100 pieces this time," said Sheikh Nasim Akhtar, a co-owner of one of the bigger outlets on Ezra Street.

He was candid about selling Chinese goods. "I make minimal profit if I sell a locally-sourced LED chain for Rs 60. In case of a Chinese product, the margin is much more even if I sell it for Rs 25," Nasim said.