.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.

The Chinese script internationalized country codes are "" ("China" in Simplified Chinese) and "" ("China" in Traditional Chinese). Entities connected to Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan 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 Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 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 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 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" These two TLDs were added to the DNS in July 2010.

Around this time, CNNIC also proposed Chinese domain names "." ("company" in Chinese, equivalent of ".com") and "." (".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.

See also

  • .hk (Hong Kong)
  • .mo (Macau)
  • .tw (Taiwan)

References

  • China Internet Domain Name Regulations
  • Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Domain Name Industry Management Information Public Notice
  • China Internet Network Information Center
  • Accredited Registrar List
  • IANA WHOIS for .cn