Foreign companies can register .cn domains — this restriction was lifted years ago — but you’ll need to go through a registrar that supports international applicants and be prepared to submit business verification documents. Individual (non-business) registrations are generally not available to foreign applicants.
Not every domain registrar handles .cn registrations. You’ll need one accredited by CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Centre) or a partner reseller that works with foreign businesses. Look for a registrar experienced specifically with foreign applicants, since the verification process differs from domestic registrations.
Chinese domain registration requires real-name verification. As a foreign business, you’ll typically need:
Some registrars can help facilitate translation and notarization as part of the registration package.
Once your documents are ready, your registrar submits them along with your desired domain name for CNNIC review. Unlike .com registrations, .cn domains go through a manual verification process rather than instant activation.
Approval typically takes a few business days, though it can take longer if additional documentation is requested. Common causes of delay include mismatched company names between documents, missing notarization, or an registrar unfamiliar with foreign paperwork.
Registering the domain and hosting in mainland China are two separate processes. If you plan to host your site on mainland servers, you’ll also need to complete an ICP filing tied to that domain — a separate step with its own documentation requirements. If you’re hosting outside mainland China (e.g., Hong Kong), ICP filing generally isn’t required, but the domain purchase process itself remains the same.
Once the domain is approved and active, you can point it to your hosting provider like any other domain — updating nameservers or A records as needed. If this domain will run alongside an existing site (e.g., a .com), plan your redirect and localization strategy at this stage rather than after launch.
The .cn registration process takes longer than a typical domain purchase due to the verification requirements, so it’s worth starting well ahead of your planned launch date. Working with a registrar experienced in handling foreign business applications is the biggest factor in avoiding delays.
]]>The single biggest factor in site performance for Chinese users is server location. Hosting on a U.S. or European server means every request has to cross international gateways, which are often congested and subject to inspection delays. The result is slow load times, timeouts, and higher bounce rates.
Fix: Host on a mainland China server (with proper ICP licensing) or use a China-based CDN to cache and serve content closer to your users. If this is not possible, host your website in Hong Kong.
Any website hosted on servers physically located in mainland China is legally required to have an ICP (Internet Content Provider) filing or license. Skipping this isn’t just a compliance risk — unlicensed sites hosted in China can be taken offline entirely.
Fix: Either obtain an ICP filing through a licensed local partner, or host outside mainland China (e.g., Hong Kong) and accept a small performance tradeoff.
Google Analytics, Google Fonts, Google Maps, YouTube embeds, and Google-hosted JavaScript libraries are blocked or unreliable in China. If your site depends on these, large chunks of it may fail to load — or load so slowly that the whole page stalls.
Fix: Use locally accessible alternatives (Baidu Analytics, self-hosted fonts, Tencent Maps) or self-host key resources instead of pulling them from blocked domains.
A word-for-word Chinese translation of an English site often feels foreign to local users. Layout conventions, color meanings, trust signals, and even preferred content density differ between Western and Chinese audiences.
Fix: Invest in proper localization — not just translation — including design, imagery, and tone that resonate with local users.
Optimizing only for Google SEO means missing the search engine that actually matters in China. Baidu has different ranking factors, including a strong preference for ICP-licensed, mainland-hosted sites and simplified Chinese content.
Fix: Build a separate SEO strategy for Baidu, including meta tags, site structure, and hosting choices tailored to its crawler and ranking system.
If you’re selling anything, offering only Visa/Mastercard or PayPal will exclude a huge share of Chinese consumers, who overwhelmingly use Alipay and WeChat Pay. Similarly, a site with no WeChat presence misses one of the most important trust and discovery channels in the market.
Fix: Integrate local payment gateways and consider a WeChat Official Account or mini-program alongside your website.
Many companies launch a China-facing site without ever checking how it actually performs from within mainland China — relying instead on how it looks from their home office.
Fix: Use in-country testing tools to check load times, blocked resources, and overall accessibility before and after launch.
Getting a China-facing website right means rethinking hosting, compliance, SEO, and localization together — not treating China as an afterthought bolted onto an existing global site. Getting these fundamentals right from day one will save significant time, cost, and frustration down the road.
]]>SinoHosting Management Team
Cycom Hong Kong Limited
]]>All affected users will be receiving their new access details in thext 24-48 hours. If you do not, please open a ticket to the Support department. If you have your own full cpmove backup available, please contact us so that we can work on restoring the account to the new server.
We apologize for this issue which has caused services to be offline over the last few days and would like to stress the importance of downloading your own backups from cPanel regularly as per our terms of services.
The Management
SinoHosting.net
]]>Please note that for all payments of less than RMB1,000, we will be charging a RMB20 additional fee to cover for the delivery of the Fapiao to by Shunfeng Express to your address in China.
The fapiao request has also been simplified and can be done directly by opening a ticket to our billing department. We are working on launching a form for Fapiao requests in the near future.
The Management
SinoHosting.net
]]>Sinohosting will also stop issuing tax invoices (fapiaos) until further notice, as the company is operated from Hong Kong.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
The Management
Cycom China Limited
]]>All migrated users will notice an increase in performance due to higher memory at the new server, as well as a better email deliverability.
For clients who have their domain names registered with SinoHosting, we would have updated the DNS to point to the new server already. If not, please make sure to update your DNS to ns15.sinohosting.net/ns16.sinohosting.net as soon as possible.
We thank you for your understanding on this matter. Please open a support ticket if you experience any issue with your website and we will make sure to assist you promptly.
The Management
]]>Going forward, ICP license application would follow the process below:
1) Clients receive the link to download the ICP license application package once they place the order through our website.
2) Read the procedures and prepare all required documents.
3) After filling the forms, they will send the scanned files back to our ICP department for confirmation.
4) Within 24h we will confirm whether everything is done properly, after which the original documents can be sent to the provided address.
The contact person, who must be a Chinese national, will need to come to our datacenter provider address to take a photo as per the requirements. Other alternatives are explained in the ICP application package.
Unfortunately, in order to move forward with the new system, we will not be able to process any outstanding application. Please resubmit a new application if you have not yet obtained an ICP license so that we can start to work on it immediately.
Existing clients who have further questions are welcome to open a ticket to our ICP department through our portal.
The Management
SinoHosting.net
If you use your own DNS, please contact our support team to obtain the new server IP to manually point to that address.
We apologize for any downtime or inconvenience experienced over the last few days. Any affected client is requested to open a support ticket with our billing department to request a RMB100 downtime credit which will be automatically deducted from any future purchase or renewal invoice.
The Management
SinoHosting.net
HostMacau clients should not see any change in their services since their server remain the same. The only change is that at their next billing they will be invoiced by SinoHosting instead of HostMacau. Also, for support issues, they will now need to contact or open support tickets with SinoHosting.
Through the acquision of HostMacau, SinoHosting has now added Macau to the list of its servers location. As a launching promotion, the company is offering six additional months for free for all new shared hosting orders on that location.
For any question regarding this migration, please send an email to migration@cycom.com.hk ; you can also open a support ticket with SinoHosting.net
The Management
SinoHosting.net
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