The Cult of Apple in China

China is where most of Apple's signature products are built. One day it might also be where most of them are sold. Why Apple is booming in China

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Photo-Illustration by Alexander Crispin for TIME. CGI by Hayri Er.

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It is late in the evening, and Liang Li has finished her shift on the production line at Foxconn Chengdu. The 23-year-old strolls hand in hand with her boyfriend, also a Foxconn employee. The pair walk past hot-pot restaurants teeming with Foxconn workers and enter a fluorescent-lit store. Liang is excited. She is about to plunk down $430 for something she has coveted for months: an iPod Touch outfitted with a special box that allows it to work as a phone. (The phone adapter is not an official Apple device but a product of Chinese ingenuity.) The iPod Touch does not remind Li of long hours at the factory. Instead, the sleek Apple machine--designed in America, made in China--reflects what everyone in China and the U.S. dreams of: a better life.

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