The 77th Country on the Internet

China’s first Internet project was launched in the 1980s. The introduction of the Internet into China was inseparable from the hard work of numerous scientists, engineers, and government departments, and support of foreign friends. The central government of China also began to attach great importance to the introduction of the Internet and the construction of Internet infrastructure.

First E-mail

At the first CASCO symposium held in Beijing in 1983, Professor Werner Zorn from the University of Karlsruhe (now Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) met with Professor Wang Yunfeng from the Chinese Institute of Computer Applications (ICA) under the Chinese Ministry of Machinery and Electronics Industry to discuss how to promote computer network applications in China and the prospects of Chinese-German computer network collaboration. Back then, communication infrastructure was underdeveloped and making an international call was very expensive, which prompted Professor Zorn and Chinese scientists to launch an email connection project.

In 1986, China was not yet a member of the Computer Science Network (CSNET). It was still tackling computer hardware and software compatibility problems, thus not equipped to connect to the international network, let alone sending e-mails. At 20:55 (Beijing time) on September 20, 1987, with the assistance of Professor Zorn, the ICA used compatible software imported from Germany to establish the first connection with the international network via the University of Karlsruhe, and sent the first e-mail message to the world: “Across the Great Wall we can reach every corner in the world.” The message also conveyed the four fundamental principles of China’s Internet cause: openness, equality, collaboration, and sharing.

After receiving the email, the server at the University of Karlsruhe forwarded it to the international computer network. A few days later, China received congratulatory emails from France, the United States and other countries as well as congratulatory emails from overseas Chinese. The first congratulatory email was from an American computer science professor.

Successful transmission of the first e-mail was an important milestone in the history of China’s Internet industry. It was the first step taken by Chinese people to begin online communication with the rest of the world.

The “. CN” Domain

Websites in each country or dependent territory are identified by a country code top-level domain (ccTLD). Registration of the “. CN” domain in 1990 marked the establishment of China’s own identity on the Internet.

Professor Qian Tianbai, the first Chinese to attend an international Internet conference, served as the liaison with Professor Zorn for “. CN” application and registration. At that time, China had not yet established full connection with the international network. With the authorization of the Chinese side, Professor Zorn ran the primary domain name server for “. CN” on the network of the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, registered “. CN” with the Network Information Center of the Stanford Research Institute (SRI-NIC), and opened international email connection for “. CN”. Professor Qian Tianbai was appointed as the Administrative Contact. Later, Professor Qian was appointed as Administrative Liaison Officer for the “. CN” domain and Qian Hualin, who presided over the National Computing and Networking Facility of China (NCFC) project, was appointed as Technical Liaison Officer.

After the completion of the network of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Sanlihe (CASNET) which, as part of the NCFC, had established connections with institutes in the Zhongguancun area, the “. CN” server was moved to CASNET and has since then been run on CASNET.

Embracing the Internet

As mentioned above, before officially establishing connection with the international network, some researchers and scholars had used computer networks to search for information and send e-mails. They had done a lot of preparatory work for the full online connection between China and the rest of the world. With the introduction of the Internet concept into China, more and more Chinese people became interested in the Internet. Knowing the huge benefits the Internet could bring to the country, the Chinese government was more determined than ever to establish full connection with the Internet. At the INET’92 and INET’93 meetings, the Chinese representative raised the issue of China’s access to the Internet and the proposal was supported by many attendants.

China officially established full connectivity with the Internet in 1994. Before the Conference of China-US Joint Commission on Science & Technology Cooperation was held in Washington in 1994, Hu Qiheng, Vice President of Chinese Academy of Sciences, submitted to National Science Foundation (NSF) China’s request to establish connectivity with the Internet. On April 20, 1994, China finally established full connectivity with the Internet. The NCFC project opened a 64K international dedicated line to the Internet through Sprint, a US company, making China the 77th member of the global Internet club.

The Earliest Internet in China - NCF

The NCFC, short for the National Computing and Networking Facility of China (named by the World Bank) and also known as the Education and Scientific Research Demonstration Network in Zhongguancun area, was a cooperative project jointly implemented by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University and Tsinghua University. The NCFC was listed by the State Planning Commission (SPC) as a project under the World Bank’s Key Academic Discipline Development Program. In August 1989, the SPC initiated a public bidding process for the project. The project was officially approved in October and launched in November. The World Bank defined the NCFC as a backbone network, excluding the internal networks of universities and research institutions. The purpose of the project was to build a supercomputing center in the Zhongguancun area and a high-speed network to connect the center with the networks of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CASNET), Peking University(PUNET), Tsinghua University (TUNET) so that scientists in the district can gain access to the supercomputing center via the high-speed network. The NCFC faced many technical problems at that time. In consideration of openness and functionality of the network, the project team decided to adopt the TCP/IP protocol. It built China’s first optical fiber backbone network and independently developed a router as part of the technical preparation for the construction of Internet infrastructure. Designed to serve scientific research, China Science and Technology Network (CSTNET) was built on the basis of NCFC and CASNET. It is one of China’s backbone networks connecting China to the Internet.