By Steve Lo, posted Jul 15, 2011 at 2:37 AM, 2,432 views,

Exclusive Update on New Apple Stores in China and Hong Kong

As per our previous coverage (Click here and here), you will remember that we currently have two major Apple stores in construction. These are the third and biggest store in Shanghai, on East Nanjing Road as well as the new flagship one in the IFC at Hong Kong. We have new and exciting details after the jump!

So firstly let’s talk about the upcoming “Nanjing Road” Store in Shanghai. Hope you still remember our previous story where we outlined Apple’s plans for the store. We have further information on that.

It will be on the lower five levels, as it was before. The lower two floors will be dominated by sales, and in particular the ground floor will be particularly important as it will be used for the super cool product launches. The second floor is going to have the Genius Bar, as well as customer training from the Apple Creative Team.

What is important to know about this store is that the top three levels will have a briefing room for Apple’s super important business clients, and administrative offices for other Apple corporate employees in China. We are also told by our sources, that customer satisfaction will be a core focus at this store, as the genius bar wait times in particular are the longest in the world. Sometimes it can be two hours or more! Also of note is that because Apple was taken by surprise with how many people come through the stores each day, the proposed 25 stores will not be in place by 2012. The issue being that current stores are not big enough to handle 40,000+ customers each day, and that they need to find space big enough. The new store in Shanghai will be bigger than the flagship (Pudong store), at 20,000+ sq ft. The Apple training for this store starts relatively soon, and the majority of the people will be training in Shanghai along with the IFC personnel, as previously mentioned in our training coverage.

The Nanjing store is supposed to open in late August, just before the IFC flagship in Hong Kong.

The second store, the one we are most excited about is the Hong Kong IFC store. As we previously noted in our past on site exclusive, it will cover 2 floors in the IFC. We have an update on training, our sources indicate that 30 mentors from 7 countries will be in Hong Kong as of July 14th. The Managers, who have been training overseas, will be here as of the 18th. The mentors will be staying at the Hong Kong Skycity Marriott hotel.

If you’ve been there before, you will immediately notice that it is about a 3 minute walk from the AsiaWorld-Expo Centre.

Our sources indicate this is where training of management and key personnel will be happening from the 18th onward. We will update you as we know more.

Also we have some breaking news for you regarding the store as well. One of our “Apple Specialists” was recently dispatched to the field. He went to the IFC and found that the parts of the mall indicated in our previous story.

The Hong Kong Apple store is indeed under construction. As per Apple guidelines, our sources indicate there are loss prevention officers on site now. They are there to make sure no pictures are taken of the store interior, to make sure nothing gets stolen and make sure no pictures are taken from the outside. Our professional team did take pictures to share with you readers.

Please notice the men in suits, those are the loss prevention officers previously mentioned.

A construction worker was entering the store through the entrance in the second floor.

There’s one more door being locked inside.

Anyway, we were very excited to get these photos, and it proves the store is almost ready. Our sources indicate it will be opening in early September. We will continue coverage of Apple training and the store openings. Stay tuned for more!