17 Fake Apple Stores Found in China's Olympic City of Qingdao!

[caption id="attachment_5579" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="One of the many shops we spotted in Qingdao"][/caption]

Yesterday we read the news that 22 more fake Apple stores had been uncovered in China! Well they can't have been looking very hard as we photographed 17 fake Apple stores in Qingdao, Shandong alone today!Qingdao is an up and coming city of around 10million people. The city is famous for Tsingtao beer, the 2008 Olympic sailing, this rather odd lady, and now for it's fake Apple stores.

[caption id="attachment_5585" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="This knock-off store even has a LG logo!"][/caption]

This fake Apple store in Qingdao, China isn't content with claiming to be an official Apple reseller, so they have gone ahead and knocked of Korean brands, LG's logo!

[caption id="attachment_5582" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The employees at this store soon came out and told us not to take photos"][/caption]

The stores are spread across the city but it didn't take long for us to cycle to the ones we knew and take photos of them, but what surprised us was the shear number of new fake Apple stores that had sprung up!

[caption id="attachment_5594" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Another store at the computer city."][/caption]

News of Beijing cracking down on store owners and shops using the Apple logos and names without permission has obviously spread to Qingdao, and more than once we were asked to not photograph the stores!

[caption id="attachment_5575" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="These guys were not so happy that we were taking photos!"][/caption]

We were even chased off by one fake Apple store employee after taking this photo!

Not all the fake store owners were camera shy though!

[caption id="attachment_5577" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Happy worker at a store Qingdao"][/caption]

Like the now famous Kunming stores, the fake Apple stores in Qingdao claim to be "official stockists" or "official resellers" for Apple. The interior design is also fashioned on the open plan designs of the genuine Apple stores, and the employees even where Apple branded uniforms!

[caption id="attachment_5574" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Employees of a store wearing Aplle uniforms"][/caption]

Speaking of Apple branded clothing we also came across a few people sporting some Apple fashion.

[caption id="attachment_5591" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption=" Land store located in Qingdao"][/caption]

This woman in the purple Apple shirt just happen to be walking past one of the stores as we took the photo.

[caption id="attachment_5573" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption=" T shirt fashion in China"][/caption]

And we spotted this guy on our way home!

[caption id="attachment_5595" align="aligncenter" width="246" caption="An iPhone polo shirt"][/caption]

It seems Apple have an extremely difficult time ahead of them, if their plan are to rid China of all unofficial stores. A job which looks down right impossible to us after we have seen the speed these fake Apple boutique stores are opening!