Inside the Beijing “Ping Guo”… er.. “Apple” Store
Our good friend Emilien over at the French Mac site MacPlus was able to send his spy Thibault Metzinger into the soon to be opened Apple Store at Sanlitun, Beijing and steal some rare interior shots of the construction.
The Apple Store is in a large mall called “The Village” near fellow giants Nike and Zara. “Apple” apparently is called “Ping Guo” in Chinese (thanks min), which literally translates to “Apple”. Hmmm… the Ping Guo Store… doesn’t quite have the same ring to it…
Allegedly slated to open on the 19th of July, the store still looks like it has a ways to go, although the tables seem to be there already, safely tucked inside their brown paper, and the staircase looks complete.
Check out more exclusive pics over at MacPlus.
It’s not “Pinggo”. It’s “Ping Guo”. In Chinese write “苹果“。 🙂
Strangely enough, in Chinese, Ping Guo is pronounced “Apple.” Hopefully, they’ll send a couple of hundred kids from the iPod factory over to finish things up quickly. 😉
苹果, exactly~
It is actually quite difficult for native English speakers to pronounce “guo”.
I’ll bet the store is covered in lead paint, insulated with asbestos and built by 5 year old laborers.
Ha…
Kinda funny i guess, but if you pronounce that, it’s the same as a kid’s TV show character (Pingu – http://www.clickandplay.com/Files/Images/Logo/Logo%20Credits/PINGU_trademark_CMYK.JPG )
Also funny that it’s a Penguin akin to the TUX!
Just my 2 cents!
T.
Wait they build Apple Stores? I thought they just used some of Steve’s RDF to turn a McDonalds into one…
“Hopefully, they’ll send a couple of hundred kids from the iPod factory over to finish things up quickly” -Jonro
Haha!! rofl, nice one dude!
I am with Xeno.
Ping Guo, Pinggo, Penguin, Ping Pong…who cares?
““Apple†apparently is called “Ping Guo†in Chinese (thanks min), which literally translates to “Appleâ€.”
I would think they would just say the phonetic sounds of “Apple”, like with most brand names (in other languages. not sure about Chinese).