Apple Opens First Store in China

Lines continue to circle city blocks in America as people line up to get iPhone 3Gs at Apple Stores around the country. Since Apple started opening dedicated retail stores in 2001, however, there have been none in China. That drought ended on Saturday as the first Chinese Apple retail store opened in Beijing’s Sanlitun Village.

The Beijing Macintosh Users Group (yep, they have one) was well represented:

Queues formed as early as nearly 22 hours before the opening. BeiMac’s first member came as 3rd in line; the President was 6th in line. Other BeiMac members and executives included Jasper Song (7th), Howard Hao (13th), Gao Chunyu (21st), as well as others.

The store is Apple's 219th worldwide. While there's no official iPhone launch in China yet, with a store in the country, there's no doubt the iPhone will end up there soon.

Despite the lack of an official launch, research firm In-Stat estimates there were about 400,000 cracked iPhones in China, according to information provided by China's biggest wireless provider, China Mobile (CMCC). According to In-Stat, this represented one out of every 10 official iPhone shipments.

Apple has already announced that in 2009 a second Beijing location will open in Qianmen, a newly-renovated shopping street south of infamous Tiananmen Square.