As soon as Li Jianming found out Apple's iPhone wouldn't be sold at his favorite Beijing electronics store, he hopped on a train for a 25-hour ride to Hong Kong, the nearest city where his dream machine was readily available.

He bought the phone on arrival and caught the next available train to Beijing.

Li's long trek, and those of other Apple aficionados willing to go the extra mile (or in Li's case the extra 5,000 km) caught the attention of marketing wizards in Cupertino.

Apple opened its first and only store outside the United States in Beijing's fashionable Sanlitun area in July 2008.

The store is not as opulent as the one in Manhattan, but it's fancy enough to attract large crowds on weekends, a testimony to the brand's rising popularity in the Chinese market.

The firm does not disclose geographic breakdown of its sales, but according to figures from China Mobile, Apple sold 400,000 iPhones in China by the end of 2007, over 10 percent of its global sales.

Apple faces an uphill fight as an IT vendor in China against HP, Dell and Lenovo. Apple's proprietary operating system is not compatible with a host of Chinese language application and game software developed by domestic IT companies. Apple products are also often priced considerably higher than comparable products from other companies.

But Apple loyalists aren't interested in the best price or even what functions the gadgets have, they buy them because they're cool. A newfound passion for lifestyle products among many young Chinese executives and professionals has made Apple the most-recognizable American brand in China, according to marketing experts.

"I wouldn't buy any Apple product if I thought about it logically," said Xie Ding, a magazine writer in Beijing. But like many of his friends in the creative business, "I tend to follow my heart when it comes to Apple", he said.

Xie has two Apple laptops, several iPods and numerous "cute" accessories. Xie's salary is modest but he said he "just couldn't resist the urge to buy this cool stuff".

Others agree. "For me, the iPhone is the most fashionable accessory of the year. It goes with everything, fits in to any situation," said Wang Yingying, a civil servant who received a first-generation iPhone as birthday present from her boyfriend.

The iPhone craze began with the product's US launch in June 2007, spread fast in China during the height of the last economic boom and so far is proving resilient to the current economic downturn.

The release of iPhone's 3G version will likely bolster Apple's reputation and user-base in China. About 30,000 iPhones (126 million yuan worth) were dealt on www.taobao.com, China's biggest e-shopping platform, in 2008 along with 60 million yuan worth of accessories. The average price of an iPhone fluctuates between 4,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan on Taobao and there is no shortage on offer; a quick search for iPhone on Taobao brings up 6,500 results.

(China Daily January 5, 2009)