The first photos of the future Beijing (China) retail store have been posted by a China-based Web site, which claims the store will hold its grand opening on July 19th. The photos shows a strangely-shaped store on at least two levels, supports for the stainless steel siding, and a covered-up light-box for the back-lit Apple logo over the entrance. Crates of stainless steel and glass confirm the Web sites photos. Writer Zhang Liang writes on the apple4us.com Web site that the Sanlitun store will open Saturday the 19th. The store is in a shopping district northeast of Apple’s first choice for a store location. Apple executives have previously said the store will open before the Olympics Games that start in August. See photos from apple4us.com after the break.
All of these photos are posted under the Creative Commons license offered by the apple4us.com Web site. Also see this photo from the macx.com Web site.
This view shows the L-shaped store–it’s two levels on the left, and has some type of tall entrance to the right. There are several items characteristic of Apple stores: the wooden crates lower-left, the supporting structure inside the space to the left for the stainless steel siding, the upper façade supporting structure of stainless steel, and the logo support itself. You can see that some of the interior supports are covered with brown cardboard or other material, indicating they may already be clad in stainless steel.
A view of the upper façade of the future store, with white cloth or plastic over the future back-lit logo.
The façade of the store, which seems to be oddly-shaped. You can see white cloth over the location of the eventual back-lit Apple logo in the upper-left portion of the façade.
Some part of the interior of the future Beijing-Sanlitun store. The walls are covered with brown paper or cardboard, possibly indicating they are already clad with stainless steel.
The origin of this create is Kikukawa Kogyo Ltd. in Japan, the source of Apple’s stainless steel. This create is #160.
This wooden crate is from Germany, the origin of Apple’s glass products. The label indicates that this is “Crate 17,” and that it contains glass (the wine glass stencil).
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Hi Gary, it’s exciting to find you’re watching apple4.us. You’ve been doing a great job with ifoAppleStore. We’re much encouraged by your great job with ifoAppleStore, your persistence and your focused efforts. We will be happy to share with you more information about Apple’s China Stores in the future. BTW, how did you managed to read our Chinese blog?
If that section with the round column on the corner is gonna be faced in glass, then they’ve still got a lot of work to do. I mean a month and change, I know Apple’s contractors work extra hard those last couple weeks, but the interior is barely recognizable. In the picture of the second level, you can see what looks like a square stainless steel column, some of the Italian stone flooring, and possibly even some exterior siding in the bottom of the frame as those black dots (holes?) look too exact to be an accident.
-Brian
Wow, this is going to be a stunning store.