According to local Hong Kong media reports, this will be Apple's most expensive store to date, spanning 20,000 square feet and two floors in a posh Hong Kong shopping mall, the International Finance Center (you've seen it—Christian Bale, as Batman, flung himself off of the building in The Dark Knight). Local newspaper Apple Daily reports that the flagship store costs $20 million.
Engadget China and 9to5 Mac snapped some photos of the outside of the store, which is still covered in white draping.
In Apple's second quarter earnings report, then-COO (now CEO) Tim Cook mentioned Hong Kong as one of the 40 upcoming Apple Stores, 28 outside the U.S., that would open this fiscal year.
The IFC store counts as China's fifth Apple Store, after two each in Beijing and Shanghai, and many more if you include China's fake Apple Stores. However unlike on mainland China, consumers in Hong Kong do not have to pay a value-added tax (sales tax); in China, the sales tax on Apple products is a whopping 20 percent.
Apple Stores bring in around $9.9 million per store every year, on average. PCMag has also been monitoring the development of a 23,000 square-foot store in New York's Grand Central location. Construction began in August and is expected to take four months.
For more, see How Apple Stores Got It Right. and Apple Stores' Secret Sauce Spilled.
Also check out some of the world's most photo-worthy Apple Stores, check out the six Apple Stores to see before you die.