China has been long known for producing counterfeit consumer goods but this time Chinese have set up fake Apple stores that look as sleek as the official stores. Photos of fake Apple stores in Chinese city Kunming were published online on the BirdAbroad blog. In the photos, the stores look very similar to Apple's official stores: sales assistants in blue T-shirts with the company's logo are chatting to customers, signs advertising the iPad 2 hang from the walls and Apple's famous logo sits next to the words "Apple Store" in the outside.

It is unclear whether the stores appearing in the pictures were selling fake or genuine Apple products.

Apple has four company stores in China, two in in Beijing and another two in Shanghai. The company has no stores in Kunming and only 13 authorized resellers in the city.

Earlier this week, Apple said that China was very important to its record earnings and revenue in the quarter that ended in June.

Revenue was up more than 600 percent from a year earlier in the area comprising China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, said Apple's Chief Operating Officer Timothy Cook, during a conference call on Tuesday.