Opening on Saturday, the second Dalian Apple Store is disputedly the brand’s largest flagship to date.
It is located in the eight-storey Olympia 66 shopping mall in the Xigang district of the Chinese port city. Opened in December, the centre has won several awards, including Best Retail Architecture in Asia Pacific.
The new shop takes Apple three-quarters of the way toward its goal of 40 stores in China by the end of the year.
Dalian is known for its food and luxury shopping, attracting visitors from Japan and Korea, as well as China. It already has one Apple Store, at Parkland Mall (pictured), which opened in October.
There has been confusion – and even vandalism – related to both stores regarding size, especially asApple does not tend to share area details of its stores. While the new store is being touted in the media as the world’s largest, Parkland Mall had signs up in 2012 saying “Apple’s World’s Biggest Flagship Store will be coming soon”, Cult of Mac reported in March that year.
To add more confusion, when Apple barricades were put up outside Parkland, rival shopping centre Dalian Department Store sent a security team to push down the Apple banners, and there is video of the security guards destroying the barricades.
It was not clear what the dispute was about, but local reports indicated the rival store opposed the Apple expansion of the mall.