China has a different taste when it comes to the Internet – mostly due to the censorship that is rampant in the country. Due to this, it is clear that their usage is widely different from the mainstream Internet.
The Golden Shield Project also known as the Great Firewall of China, is a censorship and surveillance project from the Chinese government.
The Great Firewall of China is thought to have been coined in an article in Wired Magazine in 1997. It is the main instrument to achieve internet censorship in China. These CPC regulations include criminalizing certain online speeches and activities. In addition, they block selected websites from view, and filterer key words out of searches initiated from computers located in Mainland China.
The internet in China has its own Great Wall, popularly known as the Great Firewall of China. It is often used to refer to the censorship and surveillance activities from the government.
The country bans websites like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Google, and so it is quite a curious matter to us when these sites are banned.
So, what websites do people in China use? (Some of these sites are in Chinese, but Google Translate does a decent job if you want to understand them)
Top Ten Websites in China
Please note that this ranking is done by Alexa and can be viewed on their page.
Baidu
Like the Google of China. provides search engine services among many other. Baidu bike is another service which is the Wikipedia equivalent. But unlike Wikipedia, only registered users can edit articles. content has to follow with government restrictions.
Tencent QQ, popularly known as QQ, is an instant messaging software service developed by a Chinese company Tencent Holdings Limited. QQ also offers a variety of services, including online social games, music, shopping, microblogging, and group and voice chat. WeChat is a part of the same corporation.
Taobao
Taobao is from Alibaba and is one of the big shopping destinations, along with JD and Tmall. You can shop for a variety of things here.
Sina
Sina is a popular media network. It also caters globally. You can pick English on the landing page, which, I think, is a great feature.
Weibo is the Twitter of China. It often faces censorship from the government. Even Humans of New York which rose to popularity through social networks is on it. It functions just like Twitter, but for a different audience. A lot of content on China, especially trending news, is borrowed from Weibo.
Hao123
Hao123 is the listings of China; probably the reason for its high ranking. The website is accused of installing malware. A listing website, in general, attracts a lot of audiences, and so does Hao123.
Gmw.cn
Gmw.cn focuses mainly on the Internet, mobile terminal, training platform, search engine and video, GMW is also said to have a powerful influence on it readers in critical genres as it is widely read by a large number of audience.
TMall
While JD and Taobao have everything, TMall is tailored with dedicated brands. You can find a wide variety of selected brands to shop from here.
360.cn
Quite popular in China and with a low bounce rate of less than 30 percent, 360.cn is a Chinese antivirus program. It’s great to see how the antivirus is marketed in China, as the rest of the world relies on popular mainstream antivirus programmes.
Sohu
Sohu, media and advertising platform, also provides sogou.com, a search engine. These two features that the company provides proportionally pehaps makes it one of the most used websites in China.
Now, this was a bit on the top ten websites in China. If you feel that there’s more that we should add to this list, let us know that in the comments section. Let us know your thoughts and keep the conversation going.
