.中国

.中国 (ASCII: “xn--fiqs8s”) in Simplified Chinese or .中國 (ASCII: “xn—fiqz9s”) in Traditional Chinese is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) name as a synchronized IDN ccTLD equivalent to China’s roman character ccTLD, .CN. .中国 is operated by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) and is dedicated for use by Chinese website owners.

Background

.中国 is the IDN domain name that represents China on the global internet. Similar to .CN, .中国 is part of China's domain name system and the global domain name system. It can be used in anywhere in the world, and it is unique. .中国 is similar to .CN in its function, as relevant internet infrastructure, such as web pages, mmail, FTP and other services can be built on it.

What are the benefits of using a .中国 domain name?

• It is easily remembered by and promoted to Chinese speaking demographics;
• It suits some Chinese people's typing habits (convenient for those who don't speak English, and does not require switching input language from Chinese to other language);
• Used globally, automatic transcoding to Traditional Chinese so Traditional Chinese character domains can be used the same way as Simplified Chinese in the .中国 domain;
• Websites are given a Chinese identity
• Provides a Chinese service, complies with People's Republic of China laws, protects People's Republic of China users' rights and benefits on various levels
• More likely to get the ideal domain as the .中国 domain inventory is still abundant.

ICANN Application and Delegation Process

On July 16th, 2008, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) initiated a project named “From China to the world——China domain name global upgrade action” in Beijing, China. CINNIC also announced that on the date when “.中国” is integrated in the global Domain Name System root zone, all “中文.CN” (IDN to the left of the dot .CN) domain name users will automatically get the corresponding Chinese IDN, for example “中文.中国”, .中国 domain name(s) without needing to go through the application and registration process again. After “.中国” is integrated into the global Domain Name System root zone, all automatically obtained Chinese IDN “.中国” domain names will be upgraded to the "Chinese Domain" database in the global Domain Name System root zone.

In December 16th, 2009, CNNIC held the “.中国” international domain name application launch ceremony in Beijing with Microsoft, Baidu, Alibaba, Taobao, OPERA, Aoyou, Xinhua, People.cn, Sina, Tencent and many other well-known companies present and on-site signing support of the initiative. CNNIC, on behalf of China officially submitted the application of “.中国” to ICANN.

In July 10th, 2010, ICANN authorized IANA to officially write “.中国” into the global DNS root zone. Internet users can directly enter the registered “.中国” domain name in the browser address bar to visit the associated site.

From October 29th, 2012, “.CN” and “.中国” domain name was registered and serviced separately which means “.中国” domain name officially operates independently. When registrants register a “.中国” domain name, they will no longer automatically get the associated “.CN” Chinese IDN domain name.

Registrars

• Chinese registrars
• Non-Chinese registrars

Usage

• .中国 domain naming rules:.中国 domain can include Chinese characters, English characters, a-z (upper case or lower case characters are used equally), Arabic numbers, 0-9, half-angle dash “-”, or their combinations; “-” can’t be placed in the beginning or the end of a .中国 domain name.
• Support Simplified and Traditional Chinese characters
• Registerable duration: 1 to 10 years

Websites in Use

• People’ Daily online portal: 人民网.中国
• China Merchant Bank: 招商银行.中国
• China Mobile: 中国移动.中国
• China Internet Museum: 互联网博物馆.中国
• CNNIC: 互联网中心.中国
• China Central Television: 中央电视台.中国