Although the latest iOS smartphone is available in numerous countries across the globe already, and we recently reported that Apple would release the iPhone 5 in another 50 countries. Thus far the new iOS handset hasn’t become available over in China, although the country’s second largest carrier, China Unicom is expected to make the iPhone 5 available on the 14th of this month.

However China Unicom began taking pre-orders for the iPhone 5 on Monday, and according to a report by Slash Gear, China Unicom managed to garner a very respectable 100,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 5 on that first day when the Chinese could pre-order the device.

Those that were interested in pre-ordering Apple’s latest darling smartphone were not required to lay down any cash in order to pre-order on China Unicom, but rather only had to use personal information and an ID card to make sure their reservation for the handset was accepted.

But gaining 100,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 5 despite the rather hefty expense of the smartphone is one thing, and doesn’t guarantee that all those 100,000 people will actually lay out their cash for the device come Monday the 14th of December.

Although one could assume that if you are going to slap in a pre-order you have every intention of purchasing the device. But sometimes things pop up and those figures don’t turn into a reality for whatever reason, but one can guess that if that is the case, then that figure wont shrink a great deal.

However, China Unicom isn’t the only Chinese carrier that has put the iPhone 5 up for pre-order, as China Telecom also started taking pre-orders for the handset a day earlier than China Unicom, on Sunday. However it appears that China Telecom hasn’t received as much interest in the iPhone 5 as its rival carrier, and reports have it that China Telecom only managed to garner 5,000 pre-orders for the iOS smartphone.

In the past with launches of the iPhone in China there have been quite a few problems concerning resellers and scalpers. However a new reservation system now being used by carriers in China hopes to alleviate that sort of problem with the launch of the iPhone 5. Whether it will remains to be seen, and we should know if the reservation system does sort that problem out come Monday.

No matter what though, I am sure just like in other countries, the release of the iPhone 5 in China will be just as much as a success as elsewhere.