Apple has been awarded a design patent for its retail store in Shanghai, according to Patently Apple.

The store, located steps away from the Shanghai's Pearl Tower, features a cylindrical glass tower with the glowing, white Apple logo floating within - much like the glass cube at Apple's Fifth Avenue store in New York. Don't get too close - a small, shallow moat of water surrounds the glass tower.

Clear, circular stairs take shoppers to the subterranean store, which features the familiar Genius Bar and tables upon tables of Apple gadgets.

The drawings featured by Patently Apple show that circular tower, constructed with various glass panels. Few other details were included, other than a note that said the late Steve Jobs is credited as one of the inventors of the store, along with former Apple retail chief Ronald Johnson and others.

After Jobs retired as Apple's CEO in August, the New York Times trolled the patent archives and pulled out 313 that included Jobs among their inventors. For more, see Steve Jobs, Inventor: His Top 5 Patents.

The store, situated in Shanghai's Hong Kong Plaza, opened its doors in September 2010, the same day a second Chinese store opened in Beijing. The stores' openings coincided with the arrival of the iPhone 4 in China. Demand was so high that Apple was forced to shut down its Beijing store temporarily after fights broke out between scalpers and regular customers.

One of Apple's more recent major store openings was in New York City's Grand Central Terminal. Occupying 23,000 square feet, it is one of Apple's biggest retail outlets in the world.

For more, see the 7 Apple Stores to Visit Before You Die slideshow below.