The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) announced at a news conference that its domain name registration system, after nine months of trial operation, will accept Chinese characters to the left and the right of the dot on November 7.

A domain name system is a method of turning the numerical designation associated with each computer that is attached to the Internet into a web address that consists of a sequence of letters.

Prior to the CNNIC efforts, Chinese people who could not read English often found it difficult to use the old domain name system because it required them to enter letters from the unfamiliar Roman alphabet. Some were forced to use the similarly nonsensical numerical addresses instead.

Under the CNNIC solution, users will be able to write every part of the domain name, except the dot, using Chinese characters. This even includes the zone name --the part of every web address that indicates the type of organization, such as “com” (commercial organization), “net” (networking organization) and the suffix “cn”, which stands for China.

Experts said the solution is not just soothing news for average web surfers. For the first time, Chinese businesses can make their domain names identical with their company names, without having to use pinyin or translations.

Thanks to joint efforts of technicians in the mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, the domain name system can automatically identify and switch between simplified and traditional Chinese characters, enabling it to be used and understood by Chinese speakers everywhere in the world, according to Mao Wei, director of CNNIC.

Mao also said that his center will no longer handle applications for Chinese domain name registration.

Instead, it has authorized nine Internet companies to handle Chinese domain name registration: China Telecom, Jitong Communication Co, Beijing Eastnet Data Communication Co, Beijing Chuanglian Communication Networks Co and Fujian Jingtong Technique Industry Co.

Hangzhou-based Socix also announced at Wednesday’s press conference the unveiling of a new Chinese e-mail system which allows Internet users to type Chinese characters on the left and right of the “@” sign, to send electronic mails.

(China Daily 11/01/2000)