"The Story of the Apple by Barrie E. Juniper
and David Mabberley (Barrie Juniper was Reader Emeritus in Plant Sciences at Oxford University), has raised the intriguing probability that domestic apples are, in fact, descended from a single wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, which can still be found growing on the borders between present day China and Kazakhstan.)'
Having said that, the best guess on the origin of pears is also China some 3,000 years ago, however there's no genetic relationship.
Other documents suggest that the varities of apples and pears seen today were probably introduced by the Romans during their 400 year occupation of the Bristish Isles.
There is an exotic fruit one occasionally sees at the grocery store here in the U.S. called the Apple Pear. It does resemble bot an apple and a pear but is known to be a highly in-bred pear produced in Japan and other Far Eastern countries...Must just be your virally induced sense of taste and smell...