He added later that the Beijing Apple store now outsold the Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan.

FORBES: Apple On Track To Do $12 Billion In China in 2011

When the iPad 2 was released last year, a skirmish broke out outside a Beijing Apple Store after a man believed to be a scalper was escorted away by security after trying to cut in line.

CNN: Finally, Apple owns the name 'iPad'

Apple opened its first Apple Store in Beijing only in 2008.

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China is now the largest automotive market in the world by far, and the long lines at the Apple store in Beijing, the crowded restaurants, and the robust sales of fashion items all tell the same story Chinese consumers are on a spending spree.

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Last Friday, angry customers waiting unsuccessfully to buy the iPhone 4S threw eggs at Apple's flagship Beijing store.

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