At this year's World Cup, a one-meter-long plastic horn has prompted waves of criticism.

Some football fans say the noisemakers, originally used for driving away beasts in South Africa are "mindless" and "excruciating". More than 85 percent of the vuvuzelas are actually made in China.

In Yiwu, in Eastern Zhejiang Province, hundreds of shops are peddling this low-cost plastic horn. There has been an sudden surge of overseas orders for the horns since March this year. Sellers say most of their orders are coming from World Cup countries including France, the UK and Spain. With football frenzy kicking off in South Africa, businesses say sales of vuvuzelas in China are also picking up.