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How do I find Web Hosting not blocked in China?
Breaking into the ecommerce market of China is like the Holy Grail for many ecommerce businesses.
However, there are also many obstacles to entering the Chinese market as well.
You, of course, have language and cultural issues, but even before you can confront those issues, you have to make sure that your website can even access China to begin with.
So how do you find web hosting that is not blocked in China?
By simply getting a web host that is based in China. That’s the easiest way.
In this post, I’m going to talk about how to find web hosting that is not blocked in China as well as how to host a website in China.
How do I know if a website works in China?
The great firewall of China blocks tens of thousands of sites every day from penetrating it.
Your website could also be blocked from China, without you even knowing it.
Let’s say that your website is not considered political or controversial in any manner. Your content could be as bland as milk toast, yet still be blocked and not work in China. Why?
It could be as simple as being on the wrong hosting provider’s servers.
Your IP address could also be linked to other controversial websites as well. By sharing the same IP number with controversial websites, your website is de facto blocked and won’t work in China.
There are a variety of services you can use for free to check and see if your website works in China.
Here’s a list of just a few:
Which web hosting companies are not blocked in China?
Most Western, i.e. US and EU hosting companies are blocked in China.
This includes all platforms like Shopify, Wix, even websites hosted on WordPress.com.
This is in addition to the biggest and most popular Tech giants like Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter. So if you’re starting to feel bad and left out, don’t worry, you’re in good company.
There may be some web hosting companies that are not blocked in China.
However, China is constantly updating it’s Great Firewall of China and the pace at which it updates makes it too difficult to determine which hosting companies are blocked and which are not. Since this seems to be fluid and in a constant state of flux.
So trying to find a web hosting company that is outside of China or Hong Kong that is not blocked by the Great firewall of China is a fool’s errand.
How to host a website in China?
There are basically two ways to host a website in China.
Mainland China Hosting.
The first way would be to have your website hosted in mainland China itself.
This is probably the most optimal way of accessing the Chinese market. Why?
Well, sites that are hosted in mainland China have access to mainland Chinese servers. These servers can deliver content to local Chinese internet users much faster than servers outside of China.
Chinese internet consumers are just like internet consumers anywhere in the world.
They want fast and easy access to websites, products and services on the internet.
We all know that when a site either loads too slow or not at all, we simply click off and go visit another site that does.
The same goes for Chinese internet users.
However, hosting a website in mainland China is not easy.
There’s quite a bit of paperwork and bureaucracy that go along with having your simple website hosted on mainland Chinese servers.
The first hurdle is getting an ICP license. ICP stands for Internet Content Provider.
This is a mandatory requirement by the Chinese government.
However, there’s one hitch in order to qualify for an ICP license. That is an international company or a non-Chinese company to be more exact, must be a registered business in China.
This can not only be quite expensive, but also very time-consuming.
Most ecommerce stores don’t even bother with this method.
So for the vast majority of you, this is not a realistic option.
However, the second option and more realistic, is to have your website hosted in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Hosting.
Although Hong Kong is not covered by the great firewall of China, not yet anyway, they do have much better access to the Chinese internet market, than the US, EU and other Western countries.
In addition, Hong Kong doesn’t have the same stringent requirements for hosting as China does.
Although Hong Kong’s servers are not as fast as servers directly on mainland China, Hong Kong servers are the next best thing.
Websites hosted on Hong Kong servers also aren’t under as much scrutiny as those coming from other countries.
You will also have access to the Google of China called Baidu.
By using a Hong Kong based hosting provider you will normally be able to access different ways of online advertising the main one being of course Baidu, then WeChat.
Most reputable Hong Kong hosting companies can walk you through the ins and outs in setting up an advertising account on Baidu for you.
However, this will, of course, have extra costs involved as well.
Outside of these two methods you can take your chances hosting your website with an offshore hosting company.
Offshore Hosting.
Your best chances for offshore hosting are usually with one that is preferably based in some neutral, small country that’s not political and that China does not consider a threat.
But then again, you are still taking your chances of not being able to access the Chinese internet market.
However, many offshore hosting companies do offer a slew of other ancillary benefits like much greater privacy protection, more free speech possibilities than you would have with US or EU hosting companies etc.
So even if your website doesn’t have access to the Chinese market after using an offshore hosting company, you may want to keep it for the other benefits as well.
How can I check if my website is blocked in China?
There are a number of free services, I had previously listed a few above, that you can use to find out if your website is blocked in China.
All you need to do is simply put in the URL of your website into the search bar of the Chinese access tools I had listed above and press enter.
It really is that easy. You can then see if your website is blocked or not.
However, you should also know that even if your website isn’t blacklisted in China or if your web hosting provider isn’t blacklisted, that doesn’t mean that your website will automatically be visible in China.
You could check two or three different services and one may show that it is visible and the other may show that it is not visible in China.
That is the nature of the Chinese firewall.
Besides, as I’ve mentioned above, websites outside of Hong Kong and mainland China usually load much slower in mainland China, if they load at all in Chinese users browsers or even show up in Baidu’s search results.
So check out those Chinese internet access checkers I have listed above and see for yourself.
How to host a website in China. Get Web Hosting not blocked in China. Conclusions.
There you have it. Making sure your web hosting and your website is not blocked in China is hardly an easy task.
Finding a web hosting provider in mainland China that will host your Western website is not the issue. Alibaba being the most popular web hosting provider in China, has no problem hosting non-Chinese websites.
It’s all the paperwork and permissions that you have to get beforehand. Bottom line is, unless you have a business that is already registered in China, it will be practically impossible for you to get a hosting provider in mainland China to host your website. Even Alibaba.
But all is not lost.
You can find a web host to host your website in Hong Kong, which will allow your website access and visibility in China. All without these stringent permissions and paperwork of mainland China.
The third option would be to take your chances and find an offshore host that is not blocked in China.
You may not only be able to find an offshore web host that is not blocked in China, but you may also benefit from their privacy protection policies as well as other ancillary hosting benefits that you may one day find useful as well.
Nowadays, it seems that China isn’t the only nation that censors the internet.
