China's most fashionable metropolis of Shanghai will soon close the Xiangyang Road Market, a bustling bazaar market in its latest move to combat counterfeiting.

"The market is full of counterfeit goods, and must be closed unconditionally," an official of for the Shanghai municipal government said on Monday.

One can easily find such world-famous brands as Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Prada in the Xiangyang Road Market, where some 80 percent of garments, bags and other small commodities for daily are involved in trademark infringement, according to the city authorities for industry and commerce.

Vice Mayor Zhou Taitong said the government has decided to "abolish" the market rather than "remove" it as some people have suggested.

Shanghai is the first city in China that is going to shut down a prosperous market for curbing rampant counterfeiting.

The city's market regulatory department formerly placed posters in English to alert foreigners to the counterfeit goods in the market while cracking down on the sellers. In the first half of 2005 alone, market inspectors busted nine stalls and confiscated more than 10,000 fake goods.

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2006)