Less than a day after opening, there are over 100,000 pre-orders in China

China Unicom is China’s second-biggest carrier. Just how big? How about bigger than any single carrier in the United States? With 125 million GSM and 43 million CDMA subscribers, it getting the iPhone 5 is big news. Even bigger is the fact that since preorder reservations for the iPhone 5 went live, in less than a single day over 100,000 people have pre-ordered.

The iPhone 5 will arrive on the carrier on December 14th.

Those pre-orders however are not backed by any kind of down payment, all that is required to pre-order the device is an ID card and a telephone number.

Interestingly, China’s and the world’s biggest carrier, China Mobile still does not offer the iPhone 5. If Cupertino secures a deal there it might get a huge opening. Even without China Mobile officially offering the iPhone, there are now over 15 million iPhones on it, much like there are on T-Mobile.