Shanghai is well known among movie fans as a paradise for buying contraband copies of the latest films, but in recent days it has become difficult to find pirated movies or music on the streets. This is because the Chinese government has been sweeping the streets to prevent potential embarrassments in preparation for the Shanghai World Expo, which opens May 1 and is expected to attract 70 million visitors from around the world.

According to a New York Times report on Tuesday, Chinese government inspectors recently announced a crackdown on bootleg DVDs or CDs during the six-month Expo. Shanghai government officials say the inspections were very effective and more than 3,000 stores found selling contraband titles were closed.

But the daily says that many DVD shops in Shanghai have not closed, but simply changed their retail strategy. They have built partitions to split their stores into two sections: one that sells legitimate products and a hidden one that sells pirated copies of Hollywood blockbusters like "Avatar," "Sherlock Holmes" and Lady Gaga's latest CD "The Fame."

At one DVD shop city officials hung a large poster that reads “Fight Against Piracy!” But inside, shop employees lead customers to a secret section filled with thousands of illegal copies of movies, television programs and music. "This is where everything is now," said a clerk at another shop. "We have to do it this way because of the Expo" and the government crackdowns.

A few months after the Expo is over the stores will go back to openly selling their pirated wares, shop clerks told the daily. A senior Shanghai government official acknowledged that some shops have adopted "a more covert way" of selling bootleg goods. The practice is nothing new and they've been doing it forever, but they will smoke them out so they would not be able to continue, he added.