Sultan Sandur, a visiting 23-year-old Canadian student who had planned a trip to the Xiangyang Road Fashion and Gift Market, was disappointed to find it closed when he arrived in Shanghai last weekend.

He had heard news about the June shutdown back home, but was so keen to go he made the journey to the Huaihai Road site just four hours after landing in the city.

Dominic Venne, 30, from Montreal, Canada, said he used to go there two to three times a week since arriving in February.

"I just liked its atmosphere, all the crowds jostling and the bargainings, you won't see those in my country," said Venne. "Plus I could practice my Mandarin with the vendors. They were really helpful."

But now Sandur, Venne and all those others who were hooked on the market's blend of noise, negotiations and knock-offs, are discovering other places to find those sought-after bargains.

Since moving to Shanghai in March, Sachsa Fetterly and his girlfriend Helen Lee had visited Xiangyang Road market once a week.

Fetterly and Lee now found a Xiangyang Road substitute under the ground in Pudong New Area. The market, called Yatai Xinyang Fashion & Gift Market, opened on July 12, and is located in the Metro station of the Science and Technology Museum on Metro Line No. 2.

"I heard that many shops from the old market moved there," said Fetterly. "So we went to check it out on Sunday."

"There were still vendors trying to get you into their stalls, and the catalogs," said Lee.

Stalls in Yatai also sell traditional Chinese suits such as cheongsam and silk clothes, brand wallets and bags, and foreign trade clothes. There are also some stores that sell products of their own design.

Other shops, though, didn't move as far. Sandur was able to find three of them sitting in a neighborhood near the former Xiangyang Road market.

Sandur said he was approached by two vendors with catalogs who led him through a dimly lit hallway and up some narrow stairs to their shop in an apartment building.

Sandur said he spent 300 yuan (US$37.50) on a counterfeit laptop bag and a wallet.

Part of the void left by the departure of Xiangyang Road market has been filled by Qipu Road Market in Zhabei District, where many former Xiangyang market vendors have set up shop.

"More customers visit my shop as the Xiangyang Road shops come here," said a Qipu Road clothes dealer who identified himself as Lin.

Chen, a purse dealer, said: "The dealers from Xiangyang Road market are better at persuading customers to buy their goods.

"For instance, many of them can speak English. That is an important skill to get foreigners to buy."

Some customers in Qipu said the fake goods were not what they were there for.

"I just buy what I want," said Daniele, an Italian visitor, "I'm afraid of buying fake stuff, I never buy the cheap fake-brand things which dealers brag as real-brand stuff."

In the wake of the closing of Xiangyang Road market, the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau said it is continuing to fight counterfeit goods.

The bureau said it would investigate possible outlets for fake goods if they receive reports of them from the public because it does not want a second Xiangyang Road market to appear in the city.

The bureau also encouraged venders to register their own brands rather than selling fake brand names.

(Shanghai Daily August 9, 2006)