TL;DR

CDNs reduce latency by caching and delivering your site's content from servers closer to your visitors. For most of the world, that works well. For Mainland China, it only solves part of the problem. The majority of performance issues that global websites face in China come from third-party resource incompatibilities on the application layer, which CDNs don't address. Chinafy optimizes websites at both the code level and infrastructure level, handling blocked and slow third-party resources so that your site loads fast, fully, and reliably in China, without requiring a rebuild or rehost.

What does a CDN do?

A CDN (Content Delivery Network) accelerates how content is delivered to a user's browser. Instead of a visitor in Shanghai loading your website from a server in San Francisco, a CDN serves cached copies of your content from a node that's geographically closer.

CDNs do two things well:

They reduce latency, meaning they shorten the physical distance data has to travel between the server and the user

They improve throughput, meaning content loads faster because it's served from distributed infrastructure

Many CDNs also offer security features like Web Application Firewalls (WAF) and DDoS protection, which have become standard across the industry.

For most regions around the world, a CDN is a reliable and effective solution for improving web performance. China, however, is a different environment.

Why a CDN alone won't fix your site in China

If you've ever been told "just get a CDN" to make your site work in China, you've received incomplete advice.

Here's why. Most global CDN providers don't operate their own infrastructure inside Mainland China. Their nearest points of presence (PoPs) are often in Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, or other nearby locations. While a global CDN with near-China PoPs can reduce latency for your first-party static content (such as HTML, CSS, and images hosted on your own servers), it can't fix the other issues that cause websites to break in China.

For CDN providers that do offer onshore China PoPs, the prerequisites typically include an ICP license, a legal entity in China, and a local hosting agreement with a Chinese-based hosting provider. These are significant operational and regulatory requirements that many global companies aren't set up for.

But even if you do set up onshore CDN infrastructure, your site can still load slowly or fail to display correctly. That's because the most common performance issues in China don't come from where your primary content is hosted. They come from what's in your code.

The real problem: third-party resource incompatibilities

A modern website is more than HTML and images. The average site relies on up to hundreds of third-party resources: Google Fonts, Google Analytics, YouTube or Vimeo embeds, Facebook plugins, reCAPTCHA, JavaScript libraries hosted on external CDNs, and many more.

In China, many of these third-party resources are slow, unreliable, or completely blocked. When your browser tries to load a page and even one of those resources is inaccessible, it can stall the entire page load. The result is a site that either loads painfully slowly, renders partially, or shows a blank screen altogether.

This is the layer that CDNs don't operate on. A CDN accelerates the delivery of your content. It doesn't inspect, modify, or replace the third-party resources embedded in your site's code. It doesn't know that the Google Fonts request is timing out in Beijing, or that the Facebook pixel is blocking the rest of the page from rendering. Even a fast, well-configured CDN can only deliver a broken website faster.

What Chinafy does differently

Chinafy works on the application layer, which is where the majority of China-specific web performance issues live.

Rather than only accelerating how content is delivered, Chinafy identifies, modifies, and replaces the specific third-party resources that are blocked or slow in China. It does this through a combination of automated rule-based optimizations and human engineering:

Blocked resources (such as Google APIs, YouTube, Facebook) are either replaced with China-compatible alternatives or removed in a way that preserves the functionality of the rest of the page

Slow resources (such as assets served from networks that underperform in China) are rerouted or consolidated to reduce the number of TCP handshakes and improve load times

Static assets are consolidated onto optimized infrastructure to minimize external dependencies

Chinafy generates a China-specific version of your site, based on the publicly accessible HTML, CSS, and JavaScript of your original site. The global version remains untouched for visitors elsewhere. No rebuilding, no rehosting, no code changes on your side.

On top of this, every Chinafy plan includes a fully managed, premium CDN infrastructure stack. So the infrastructure layer is covered as well, but it's layered on top of the code-level optimizations rather than being relied on as the sole fix.

This combination of code-level compatibility and infrastructure optimization typically results in sites loading 30-40% faster than with a near-China CDN alone, though results vary depending on the site, network conditions, and third-party services in use.

Chinafy and CDNs work together, not against each other

Chinafy isn't a CDN replacement. If you already use Cloudflare, Akamai, AWS CloudFront, or another CDN provider, Chinafy works alongside your existing stack. A number of Tier 1 CDN and cloud providers, including AWS, Azure, and Alibaba Cloud, partner with Chinafy specifically because Chinafy addresses the application-layer issues that their infrastructure can't.

Here's a simplified way to think about it:

A CDN optimizes content delivery (infrastructure layer)

Chinafy optimizes resource compatibility and content delivery for China (application layer + infrastructure layer)

For companies that need their website to work in China, using a CDN alone is like solving half the equation. Chinafy fills in the rest.

How Chinafy helps

Chinafy specializes in making global websites load quickly, fully, and consistently in China without requiring teams to rebuild or rehost their sites. It works by optimizing code-level compatibility, handling third-party resources that underperform in China, and layering on infrastructure built for the region, including near-China or onshore CDNs, to deliver reliable China-specific performance.

Because China's internet environment can change unpredictably, with domains that work one week becoming inaccessible the next, Chinafy also provides ongoing monitoring and optimization so that performance stays consistent over time.

Ready to see how your website performs in China? Get in touch with Chinafy for a free site analysis.

FAQs

Is Chinafy a CDN?

No. Chinafy is a China web compatibility platform. However, every Chinafy plan includes a fully managed CDN stack optimized for China. The key difference is that Chinafy also addresses the code-level and application-layer incompatibilities that CDNs can't resolve.

Can I use Chinafy with my existing CDN?

Yes. Chinafy works alongside existing CDN providers like Cloudflare, Akamai, and AWS CloudFront. You don't need to change your current CDN setup to use Chinafy.

Do I need an ICP license to use Chinafy?

Not unless required for business-specific reasons or your site is already hosted onshore in Mainland China. Chinafy enables near-native onshore performance while your site can remain offshore. An ICP license is only required if you want to host your website on servers physically located inside Mainland China. If you do need an ICP license or want to explore onshore hosting, Chinafy can connect you with partners who can help.

Disclaimer: This guide is informational and does not constitute legal advice. Chinafy is not a legal or corporate advisory entity, and, given that every business is different, we suggest consulting with your internal legal counsel if you would like advice on any legal or compliance-related concerns, or alternatively we can connect you with one of our partners.

Why is my site slow in China even though I have a CDN?

Most likely because the performance issues are coming from third-party resources in your site's code, not from where your primary content is hosted. CDNs accelerate content delivery but don't address blocked or slow third-party resources like Google Fonts, analytics scripts, video embeds, or social media plugins.

How fast can Chinafy make my site in China?

Performance improvements vary depending on the site, but Chinafy sites are typically 30-40% faster than sites using a near-China CDN alone. Some fully optimized sites load in 2-3 seconds. Chinafy does not make performance guarantees as website accessibility and performance in China varies with regional network conditions, third-party services, and other external factors.

How long does it take to go live with Chinafy?

Most sites can go live in as little as two weeks, with no rehosting, replatforming, or rebuilding required.