Overseas websites can be slow or incomplete in China because of international routing, unreliable DNS, blocked services and resources that are unnecessarily large or remote.
This guide uses the current Access to China Performance Upgrades recommendations as its core. Many of the same changes also improve performance globally.
Run a website test
DNS for overseas-registered domains can be slow or unreliable in China. Look for DNS requests taking more than 250 ms or intermittent “not found” results, then review whether a China-focused name-server service is appropriate.
Chinese NS/DNS serviceChina’s domestic internet can be extremely fast. This can include traffic between mainland China and Hong Kong when the Hong Kong service uses a Chinese carrier or a verified direct route into mainland China.
Hong Kong hosting is not automatically faster. Many US and international carriers do not use Chinese carrier networks, sometimes for security or operational reasons. Traffic may therefore take an indirect international route—potentially travelling via the United States, Japan or Taiwan before reaching mainland China.
An indirect route may produce latency of approximately 200–300 ms, compared with around 20–30 ms over a correctly configured direct connection. Physical proximity is not enough: verify the carrier and the actual network route.
Chinese website hostingInternational social media, multimedia platforms, Google services, reCAPTCHA and some CDN resources may be blocked or too slow to use. The main page can load while important content, forms or navigation remain broken.
Dynamic website serviceThe waterfall is a timeline of every resource requested by the browser. Long bars, large gaps and requests that finish very late show where to investigate.
International routing and limited bandwidth can add substantial delays. Review where the website and its large files are hosted, and verify that any regional provider has a direct connection to mainland China.
Blocked or restricted overseas platforms can cause missing content, broken layouts and unusable controls. Test every critical resource and replace services that cannot be reached reliably from China.
Overseas DNS can be slow or unreliable. Investigate lookups above 250 ms and intermittent “not found” results, then consider a China-focused name-server and DNS service.
Resize images to their displayed dimensions, provide responsive image choices and lazy-load lower-priority media. Smaller, prioritised files improve mobile performance and reduce unnecessary data transfer.
External fonts, libraries, social feeds, videos and CDN resources may load slowly or fail. Host essential resources locally where possible and remove dependencies that are not necessary.
Google reCAPTCHA may prevent contact, registration or checkout. Review recaptcha.net as an alternative Google domain, or use local or self-hosted verification to remove the external dependency.
Security systems can mistake Chinese visitors or shared WeChat traffic for bots. Check firewall, IP-blocking and rate-limit rules to ensure legitimate users and referrals can reach the website.
HTTP/3 can improve connection setup and recovery from packet loss on long-distance and mobile networks. Retain HTTP/2 fallback and open UDP port 443 so HTTP/3 can operate.
Allow core content to load without waiting for a third-party consent service. Keep the banner lightweight, host scripts locally where possible and reduce tracking dependencies that obstruct users and crawlers.
Full guidance: Read Improving Website Performance in China.
Prioritise anything that prevents the page from being used. Then correct DNS and routing problems, remove blocked dependencies, optimise large images, review security rules, and consider HTTP/3.
Change one group of resources at a time. Comparing before-and-after tests makes it much easier to prove which change helped.
Read the complete and regularly updated Performance Upgrades article.
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