Shanghai's Xiangyang Market, the city's main bazaar for fake name-brand products, will finally close its doors at the end of June.
The official Liberation Daily said the municipal government had ordered its closure from June 30. But peddlers of pirated goods plan to shift operations elsewhere.
The market has attracted millions of tourists from both the mainland and overseas since moving from Huating Road to Huaihai Road six years ago.
After criticism from companies and foreign governments over the lack of protection for intellectual property rights, city authorities staged a number of crackdowns, seizing fake goods, fining stallholders and installing cameras to monitor vendors.
But Vice-Mayor Zhou Taitong said in January the market would close because the efforts had failed. Xiangyang Market had tainted the city's image and accounted for about 80 per cent of the city's piracy cases, he said.
Public relations consultant Grace Zheng, who recently bought bags and shoes there, said she would miss the market, although she understood the decision.