.cn
Internet country-code top level domain for the People's Republic of China
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
.cn is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the People's Republic of China. Introduced on 28 November 1990, the domain is administered by China Internet Network Information Center, a public institution affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The domain is the largest ccTLD in the world.[4]
| Introduced | 28 November 1990[1] |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Country code top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | China Internet Network Information Center |
| Sponsor | Chinese Academy of Sciences |
| Intended use | Entities connected with China |
| Actual use | Very popular in mainland China[2] |
| Registered domains | 19,562,007 (2024-08-29)[3] |
| Structure | Names can be registered either at the second level, or at the third level under the generic or provincial-level administrative divisions second-level domains |
| Documents | China Internet Domain Name Regulations |
| Dispute policies | China ccTLD Dispute Resolution Policy and China ccTLD Dispute Resolution Policy Rules |
| Registry website | cnnic |
The Chinese script internationalized country codes are ".ä¸å½" ("China" in Simplified Chinese) and ".ä¸å" ("China" in Traditional Chinese). Entities connected to Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan typically use .hk, .mo, and .tw, respectively,[5] despite the availability of corresponding second-level domains under .cn for those regions.
Second-level domains
Domain names can be registered either at the second level, or at the third level under the generic or provincial-level administrative divisions second-level domains.
Generic second-level domains
According to the "China Internet Domain Name System" published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, there are 9 generic second-level domains, two of which are internationalized:[6]
Open registration
- ac.cn : Scientific research institutions
- com.cn : Industrial, commercial, financial, and other enterprises
- net.cn : Organizations providing Internet services
- org.cn : Not-for-profit organizations
Registration restricted
- edu.cn : Educational institutions in China
- gov.cn : Chinese government organizations
- mil.cn : Chinese military-affiliated organizations
Provincial-level administrative divisions second-level domains
The two-letter abbreviations correlate with ISO 3166-2 "Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisionsâPart 2: Country subdivision code" (adapted locally as National Standard GB/T 2659.2).[7] The provincial-level administrative divisions second-level domains are with the open-registration policy. According to the "China Internet Domain Name System"[6] published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, there are 34 administrative division second-level domains:
- ah.cn : Anhui Province
- bj.cn : Beijing Municipality
- cq.cn : Chongqing Municipality
- fj.cn : Fujian Province
- gd.cn : Guangdong Province
- gs.cn : Gansu Province
- gz.cn : Guizhou Province
- gx.cn : Guangxi Province
- ha.cn : Henan Province
- hb.cn : Hubei Province
- he.cn : Hebei Province
- hi.cn : Hainan Province
- hk.cn : Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
- hl.cn : Heilongjiang Province
- hn.cn : Hunan Province
- jl.cn : Jilin Province
- js.cn : Jiangsu Province
- jx.cn : Jiangxi Province
- ln.cn : Liaoning Province
- mo.cn : Macao Special Administrative Region
- nm.cn : Nei Mongol Autonomous Region
- nx.cn : Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region
- qh.cn : Qinghai Province
- sc.cn : Sichuan Province
- sd.cn : Shandong Province
- sh.cn : Shanghai Municipality
- sn.cn : Shaanxi Province
- sx.cn : Shanxi Province
- tj.cn : Tianjin Municipality
- tw.cn : Taiwan Province
- xj.cn : Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
- xz.cn : Xizang Autonomous Region
- yn.cn : Yunnan Province
- zj.cn : Zhejiang Province
Internationalized domains
Internationalized domain names with Chinese characters may be registered at the second level under the .cn top-level domain.
On 25 June 2010, ICANN approved the use of the internationalized country code top-level domains ".ä¸å½" (China in simplified Chinese characters, DNS name xn--fiqs8s) and ".ä¸å" (China in traditional Chinese characters, DNS name xn--fiqz9s) by CNNIC.[8] These two TLDs were added to the DNS in July 2010.
Around this time, CNNIC also proposed Chinese domain names ".å ¬å¸" ("company" in Chinese, equivalent of ".com") and ".ç½ç»" (".net"). Both were delegated in January 2014 and have been active since.
Around 15 other generic domain names with Chinese characters have later been registered. See List of Internet top-level domains#Chinese characters.