Crowded chaos, injuries at SanLiTun Apple Store in Beijing

I don't blame them

.... Everybody was Kung-Fu fighting, those kicks were fast as lightning.

Apparently a round eye hit a Chinese man with a crowbar and then announced that no Chinese man could beat him. Now, Chinese Kung Fu has been insulted, and only a Master of Wing Chun can reclaim their honor in a fight to the end.

Or maybe that's the plot to Ip Man 2? I forget. Winner gets an iPad2!

I'd expect this in Oakland, not China. The Chinese are notorious for not understanding the concept of queues, but the riots and broken glass are a surprise. This would never happen in Japan.

If I were a chinese citizen I would be angry too... The thing is made (sorry, assembled) in my country and as if being among the last countries to get ipad 2 wasn't sad enough - there isn't enough supply around?

Next thing you know, they'll be heading down to foxconn.

I was at the scene, but I did not see the fight when it happened. There was an area designated for people to line up but after the incident security started moving people out of the area. It could have something to do with scalpers as I saw the police threatening/harassing a Chinese inside the store after everyone was asked to evacuate.

Right outside the Apple Store was a man lying on the ground - he was conscious. No one really knows exactly what happened but there were lots of security around - military police (wu jing), police, and Apple's security staff.

Also as the place this occurred was in a busy shopping district, in order to disperse the crowd around the Apple Store security started spraying water with hoses.

From the photos there were hundreds of folks and no proper queue like at 5th Ave so I don't doubt that there was chaos, a minor riot etc. Or that folks got hurt. What I doubt was that an Apple employee of any kind had any kind of weapon etc. It was more likely some kind of private security that might have had those police batons and was using it as an impromptu barrier (holding them up between themselves). and when the crowd surged towards the front a random flailing arm accidentally hit someone.

This kind of stuff is why I wish they would say to hell with the hassle and go back to reservation only for major releases. Sure some folks will not show up after all but you can use the system to pace the crowds. Folks will be told that they will get an email, or SMS if they choose, when theirs is in. And walk ups. Heck they could use a combo of apple id, email and SMS to possible slow down the resellers using retail stores as their personal warehouse. Especially if they require a photo id to show that the person picking up the 'limit of X per customer' is the person that placed the reservation

Did you really just tell people to go into a potentially dangerous area so you could get a few thousand more click-throughs?

What a bunch of idiots.