Join the forum discussion on this post - (2) PostsWhile this isn’t iPhone news per se, it is breaking news! Earlier today Apple opened their first retail store in Beijing, China. The store officially opened its doors at 10 a.m. local time, welcoming a surge of eager Apple customers.
This Apple store is much like an Apple store in say, the United States. It features a genius bar (multilingual of course,) full fledged technical support, and pretty much everything else you would find in any other Apple store, except for one thing: the iPhone.
Seeing as how Apple has yet to secure a deal with Chinese iPhone carriers, they will not be selling the iPhone 3G at Apple retail stores located in China (hopefully this will change with time.)
This does not mean China does not have iPhones! Beijing is one of the main hubs of smuggled/pirated iPhones in the country, if you want an iPhone, it can be purchased illegally on the black market. (I am by no means advocating that you break the law!)
To see pictures of the Beijing Apple Store grand opening, click here
[via MacRumors]
![Glowing Apple logo mod for 2G iPhone [Video]](http://www.iphonefreak.com/wp-content/themes/freshnews/thumb.php?src=http://www.iphonefreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/iphone-apple-light-21.jpg&h=28&w=28&zc=1&q=80)
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Great info - keep up the great work.