Asia and Pacific Region Forum

That is the main question of me as well. I just phoned one of my people in China, he confirmed that it is very slow when visiting foreign sites, but he can not offer any data on it. I can do some tracerts to main hosting companies in America & Europe to see the speed when I am in China.

I was in China half an year ago, at that time it was almost impossible for me to visit my own site which is hosted in the Netherlands.

For many of you who just want to know some stats of Internet in China, you should visit
[cnnic.org.cn...]

That is the government who controls the whole Internet in China. You will find information such as domain registration, stats of Internet development in China, etc.

You can also find the connection speed from China to outside countries there.

If you understand Chinese, here is a nice flash, move your mouse to certain ISP, it will show the connection speed to outside world.
[cnnic.org.cn...]

A JPG version is also avaiable with a little English translation on it.
[cnnic.org.cn...]

I have no plans to open a .cn site for now, but like many here, I would
like to know more about the details and possible pit-falls.

There are a number of issues, connection speeds, censorship etc.
On a more positive note, this looks like a wonderful way to open some doors.
The language barrier is the 'Great Wall' for me.
I have met any number of Chinese who speak passable to excellent English.
I have yet to meet a 'round-eyed' Californian who can begin to speak
any sort of convincing Chinese!

On my one visit there 20 years ago, I started to copy some Chinese
ideographs onto a letter I was writing home.
I was copying them the way a naturalist might try to reproduce the form
of some plant or animal.

"No no!" protested a kind and helpful man there.
"Do it like this!" [ stroke - stroke - stroke ..]