All of China gets in line for iPhone 4S (Video)

Video from MIC Gadget:

Philip Elmer-DeWitt also covers the story:

Penn Olson's Steven Millward reports from Shanghai that crowds several city blocks long have formed outside Apple's (AAPL) stores in Beijing and Shanghai hours before the scheduled release of the iPhone 4S Friday morning.

Although China Unicom (CHU) will begin selling the device for heavily subsidized prices at midnight -- eight hours earlier -- most Chinese buyers seem to be congregating at Apple's own stores, perhaps to get the unlocked versions that only Apple sells.

It could be long, cold night. According to Millward, temperatures are supposed to drop to 3°C (37°F) overnight in Shanghai and even lower in Beijing.