Those who travel to China know that fakes—fake iPhones, fake watches, fake Louis Vuitton bags—are everywhere. But while it's easy for the average American to find counterfeit products, most of the Western world has been blissfully unaware of entire counterfeit stores—until recently, that is. Chinese authorities recently ordered the shutdown of two fake Apple Stores in Kunming, and now a whopping 22 more have been identified. And there's probably plenty more where that came from.

The "fake Apple Store" story exploded online in late July when the blog BirdAbroad posted photos of what looked and seemed like a legit Apple retail store that the blogger had encountered while traveling in China, but that she later discovered to be an entirely fake store. The store wasn't selling fake Apple products—customers could buy real iPads, real iPhones, and real Macs. And the employees, earnest as they were, apparently had no idea that they weren't actually working for Apple retail.

In the days following the discovery, Apple filed a trademark lawsuit against 50 John Does and businesses over various fake Apple Stores, and authorities in Kunming ordered two fake stores to close—not because they violated any trademarks, but because they didn't have proper business permits. At that time, Chinese law enforcement was already aware that there were more unauthorized stores, which is what undoubtedly led them to the discovery of 22 more faux Apple retail shops. According to Reuters, China's Administration for Industry and Commerce ordered the stores to stop using Apple's logo after Apple China filed a complaint about unfair competition and trademark infringement.

Kunming government's business bureau spokesperson Chang Puyun reassured Reuters that the stores may have been unauthorized, but that they were still selling real Apple products. "China has taken great steps to enforce intellectual property rights and the stores weren't selling fake products," Chang said.

Finding more than 20 "fake" Apple Stores seems like a huge number, but it probably signals the beginning of a greater crackdown—if various local Chinese governments decide they want to investigate as Kunming has, at least. In my own (somewhat limited) experience traveling through different parts of China, it has been incredibly easy to find electronics stores that plaster the Apple logo about like some real-world manifestation of a Steve Jobs world takeover fantasy. Sometimes the stores even sit across the street from each other or line up in a row along the same road.

Not all of these stores are kitschy, especially in wealthier areas—these stores have been slowly inching towards the Apple retail store aesthetic for years now, so it was only a matter of time before someone went for the gold with a full head-to-toe imitation. So long as customers get the real products, they generally don't seem to care where they're coming from.

The whole story is just one of many reasons why China remains near the top of the US Trade Representative's annual Priority Watch List, which highlights countries that the US believes are the most egregious intellectual property offenders. China has promised for years that it will make more of an effort to crack down on various types of intellectual property infringement—and Kunming's example shows how this has indeed happened, at least in fits and starts—so we can likely expect to hear even more reports about unauthorized Apple Stores over the next few months.