Chinese New Year decoration in Tangra

Where: Tangra

Second home: After trade brought them to town, Chinabazar Road in Burrabazar emerged as the first Chinese ghetto.

Then the community spread to Tiretta Bazar, Ezra Street and Bentinck Street. But Tangra, the tiny "hamlet" off EM Bypass, remains the hub with its dwindling tanneries and flourishing restaurants.

"About 600 families, comprising around 4,500 members, have made Calcutta their home," says Paul Chung, the president of the Indian Chinese Association for Culture, Welfare and Development.

The look and feel: Come February and a trail of (human) dragons whooshes out of the Tangra lanes to celebrate the Chinese New Year. For the rest of the year, the quiet lanes leading to Tangra from the Bypass occasionally wake up to the honking of cars heading for a restaurant.

Hemmed in by featureless, stolid buildings, the alleys snake past some of the famous stops in Chinese cuisine -- Kim Ling, Beijing, Big Boss, Hot Wok Village, the list goes on…. The entrance to most of the eateries glows with a warm red light; a dragon with blazing eyes keeps guard.

The smell of broth blends with a whiff of the leather tanneries…

Overheard: "We are an invisible race. We've always been a close-knit, isolated and self-sufficient community and have stayed among our own. But slowly things are changing. The current generation has learnt to value Calcutta as their home. They are moving out of Tangra and Bentinck Street areas, and settling in various parts of the city," smiles Chung.