“Apple is stepping up its retail expansion in the mainland with the opening of its third branded store in Beijing on Saturday, three weeks after launching a new outlet in Hong Kong,” Bien Perez reports for the South China Morning Post.
“The latest Apple Store in the world’s second-largest economy is at Beijing apm [formerly Sun Dong An Plaza (新东安市场)], a shopping mall and office complex built by Sun Hung Kai Properties and located in busy Wangfujing Street,” Perez reports. “This will be the technology giant’s eighth retail store in the China market, where it has three shops in Shanghai, two in Hong Kong and two other stores in Beijing… The first Apple Store in China was opened in July 2008 at Building 6 of The Village, a sprawling shopping complex in the popular Sanlitun area of Beijing’s Chaoyang District. The other is inside Joy City, a mall at North Xidan Avenue in the Xicheng District.””
Perez reports, “The store will take the number of Aple’s branded stores to 386 in 13 countries… Apple, maker of the groundbreaking iPhone and iPad, has been quite slow in its store expansion across China, despite forecasting in 2010 that it would have 25 Apple Stores completed by the end of this year.”
Read more in the full article here.
Great location. Wangfujing is the traditional shopping street in Beijing. It’s similar to Apple opening a store on Nanjing East road in Shanghai or 5th Ave in NYC.
Meanwhile, at Shenzhen’s Window of the World Apple Store site nothing is happening.
“Everybody Wangfujing tonight!”