We’re accustomed to stories about all sorts of counterfeit products popping up in China and elsewhere on the western side of the Pacific Rim – countries that don’t have nearly the same sort of intellectual property regulation that we take for granted in the United States. But this takes the cake. The blog BirdAbroad has a truly bizarre story about how the southern Chinese city of Kunming actually has entirely counterfeit Apple Stores:

“You have already guessed the punchline, of course: this was a total Apple store ripoff. A beautiful ripoff – a brilliant one – the best ripoff store we had ever seen (and we see them every day). But some things were just not right: the stairs were poorly made. The walls hadn’t been painted properly.“Apple never writes ‘Apple Store’ on it’s signs – it just puts up the glowing, iconic fruit.”

You have to see the pictures to believe them. I’m sure that the vast majority of the customers in these stores have no idea whatsoever that this isn’t real. BirdAbroad suggests that even the employees of this store they went to genuinely believe they’re Apple employees.

Apple currently lists four stores in China. None of them are in Kunming.

(via IfoAppleStore)