.cn is the

country code top-level domain A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all tw ...

(

ccTLD A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all tw ...

) for the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. 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 Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) is the sixth-ranked executive department of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. It is responsible for regulation and development of the postal service, Internet, wireles ...

. The domain is the largest ccTLD in the world. The

Chinese script Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...

internationalized country codes are "" ("China" in Simplified Chinese) and "" ("China" in Traditional Chinese). Entities connected to

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

, and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

typically use .hk, .mo, and .tw, respectively, 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

, there are 9 generic second-level domains, two of which are internationalized:

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 national defense organizations

Provincial-level administrative divisions second-level domains

The two-letter abbreviations correlate with

ISO 3166-2 ISO 3166-2 is part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and defines codes for identifying the principal subdivisions (e.g., provinces or states) of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1. Th ...

"Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions—Part 2: Country subdivision code" (adapted locally as National Standard GB/T 2659.2). The provincial-level administrative divisions second-level domains are with the open-registration policy. According to the "China Internet Domain Name System" published by the

, there are 34 administrative division second-level domains: * ''ah''.cn :

Anhui Province Anhui is an inland province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiangxi to the south, Hub ...

* ''bj''.cn : Beijing Municipality * ''cq''.cn : Chongqing Municipality * ''fj''.cn :

Fujian Province Fujian is a province in southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefecture city by population is Qua ...

* ''gd''.cn :

Guangdong Province ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

* ''gs''.cn :

Gansu Province Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

* ''gz''.cn :

Guizhou Province ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = , image_map = Guizhou in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_alt = Map showing the location of Guizhou Province , map_caption = Map s ...

* ''gx''.cn : Guangxi Province * ''ha''.cn :

Henan Province Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Luo ...

* ''hb''.cn :

Hubei Province Hubei is a province in Central China. It has the seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland provinces. Its provincial capital at Wuhan serves as a major politi ...

* ''he''.cn :

Hebei Province Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

* ''hi''.cn :

Hainan Province Hainan is an island province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally means "South of the Sea" ...

* ''hk''.cn :

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a Special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the List of ...

* ''hl''.cn : Heilongjiang Province * ''hn''.cn :

Hunan Province Hunan is an inland province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Guangdong and Guangxi to the south, and Guizhou and Chon ...

* ''jl''.cn : Jilin Province * ''js''.cn :

Jiangsu Province Jiangsu is a coastal province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the third smallest, but the fifth most populous, with a population of 84. ...

* ''jx''.cn :

Jiangxi Province ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...

* ''ln''.cn :

Liaoning Province ) , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = Clockwise: Mukden Palace in Shenyang, Xinghai Square in Dalian, Dalian coast, Yalu River at Dandong , image_map = Liaoning in China (+all claims hatched).svg , ...

* ''mo''.cn :

Macao Special Administrative Region Macau or Macao is a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most densely populated region in the world. Formerly a Portuguese colony, the ter ...

* ''nm''.cn : Nei Mongol Autonomous Region * ''nx''.cn : Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region * ''qh''.cn :

Qinghai Province Qinghai is an inland province in Northwestern China. It is the largest province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xining. Qinghai borders Gansu on the nort ...

* ''sc''.cn :

Sichuan Province Sichuan is a Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capita ...

* ''sd''.cn : Shandong Province * ''sh''.cn :

Shanghai Municipality Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

* ''sn''.cn :

Shaanxi Province Shaanxi is a province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to the west. Shaanxi ...

* ''sx''.cn : Shanxi Province * ''tj''.cn : Tianjin Municipality * ''tw''.cn :

Taiwan Province Taiwan Province ( zh, t=臺灣省 , p=Táiwān Shěng , poj=Tâi-oân-séng; PFS: ''Thòi-vàn-sén'' or ''Thòi-vân-sén'') is a ''de jure'' administrative division of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Provinces remain a titular division as ...

* ''xj''.cn : Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region * ''xz''.cn : Xizang Autonomous Region * ''yn''.cn :

Yunnan Province Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

* ''zj''.cn :

Zhejiang Province ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

Internationalized domains

Internationalized domain name An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that contains at least one label displayed in software applications, in whole or in part, in non-Latin script or alphabet or in the Latin alphabet-based characters with diacrit ...

s with Chinese characters may be registered at the second level under the .cn

top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domain name, domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the DNS root zone, root zone of the nam ...

. On 25 June 2010,

ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization headquartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several dat ...

approved the use of the

internationalized country code top-level domain An internationalized country code top-level domain is a top-level domain in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. IDN ccTLDs are specially encoded domain names that are displayed in an end user application, such as a web browser, in the ...

s "." (''China'' in

simplified Chinese characters Simplified Chinese characters are one of two standardized Chinese characters, character sets widely used to write the Chinese language, with the other being traditional characters. Their mass standardization during the 20th century was part of ...

, DNS name ''xn--fiqs8s'') and "." (''China'' in

traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to written Chinese, write Chinese languages. In Taiwan, the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education (Taiwan), Ministry of Educat ...

, DNS name ''xn--fiqz9s'') by CNNIC. These two TLDs were added to the DNS in July 2010. CNNIC proposed around this time Chinese

domain name In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services, and more. ...

s in "." (".com" in Chinese) and "." (".net" in Chinese). However, these have not been recognized by

yet and are only available via domestic

domain name registrar A domain name registrar is a company, person, or office that manages the reservation of Internet domain names. A domain name registrar must be accredited by a generic top-level domain (gTLD) Domain name registry, registry or a country code top-l ...

s. Around 15 other generic domain names with Chinese characters have later been registered. See List of Internet top-level domains#Chinese characters.

References

China Internet Domain Name Regulations

External links

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Domain Name Industry Management Information Public Notice

China Internet Network Information Center

Accredited Registrar List

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cn Country code top-level domains Internet in China 1990 establishments in China Internet properties established in 1990