<p>The great firewall being between you and the servers doesn't help, but the main reason is that they only have servers in China, not a distributed content network (CDN) like most of the sites you might regularly access (Google, Youtube, Facebook etc) so that the distance between you and the nearest server is quite great.</p>

<p>You should also be aware that they are progressively locking down content on these sites from overseas - they don't want people accessing illegal content from abroad - so long term they aren't your best bet for getting learning material</p>

<p>Check out sites like <a href="http://english.cntv.cn/learnchinese/">CNTV</a> - it seems to load fairly quickly for me at least, and they are actively promoting it to international users as part of the 'soft power' aspect of growing China.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-18T21:42:00.840Z
that's nothing about the great firewall. I hit this issue this morning and am searching for solutions so found this question. I found that when accessing the website from my home WIFI, it's deadly slow. but if I switched to mobile internet, it's fast. So it cannot be the case like what you said. Hopefully, someone with the real knowledge could see this question and answer it within comments.
Franva
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-08T22:59:48.367Z
2012-01-08T22:59:48.367Z
Ciaocibai
<p>When I was in China, these video sites were great for getting chinese material to watch. Ever since I came back though, these sites are too slow to watch anything.</p>

<p>Why are these so slow and is there a way to make them download faster?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-08T06:33:00.767Z
Hello! Welcome to this site!  I won't down-vote this question but I think it's not quite a question about Chinese language. I guess(just guess) you are slow because the server-end is designed not to respond to the request from overseas rapidly. When someone in China uses proxy to access to overseas sites, he would find he could not access some domestic sites.
Huang
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-05-28T13:52:46.280Z
I'm in China. Yet Youtube is _far_ faster than youku. Just have to make do with it. Youku sucks.
arax
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-05-28T22:10:05.103Z
I won't down-vote this question but I want to down-vote the up-vote. To the up-voter: this is not a BBS!
NS.X.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-05-30T10:17:11.707Z
The topic seems to be off topic, but I think the answer gets up-voted because it provides a good source of learning Chinese.
Paul Allen
<learning>
Why are sites like youku and baidu so slow overseas?
# Why are sites like youku and baidu so slow overseas?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-01-08)

When I was in China, these video sites were great for getting chinese material to watch. Ever since I came back though, these sites are too slow to watch anything.

Why are these so slow and is there a way to make them download faster?

**Tags:** learning

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Hello! Welcome to this site!  I won't down-vote this question but I think it's not quite a question about Chinese language. I guess(just guess) you are slow because the server-end is designed not to respond to the request from overseas rapidly. When someone in China uses proxy to access to overseas sites, he would find he could not access some domestic sites.  
> **username_2**: I'm in China. Yet Youtube is _far_ faster than youku. Just have to make do with it. Youku sucks.  
> **username_3**: I won't down-vote this question but I want to down-vote the up-vote. To the up-voter: this is not a BBS!  
> **username_4**: The topic seems to be off topic, but I think the answer gets up-voted because it provides a good source of learning Chinese.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2012-01-08. Score: 7

The great firewall being between you and the servers doesn't help, but the main reason is that they only have servers in China, not a distributed content network (CDN) like most of the sites you might regularly access (Google, Youtube, Facebook etc) so that the distance between you and the nearest server is quite great.

You should also be aware that they are progressively locking down content on these sites from overseas - they don't want people accessing illegal content from abroad - so long term they aren't your best bet for getting learning material

Check out sites like [CNTV](http://english.cntv.cn/learnchinese/) - it seems to load fairly quickly for me at least, and they are actively promoting it to international users as part of the 'soft power' aspect of growing China.

> **Comments:**
> **username_6**: that's nothing about the great firewall. I hit this issue this morning and am searching for solutions so found this question. I found that when accessing the website from my home WIFI, it's deadly slow. but if I switched to mobile internet, it's fast. So it cannot be the case like what you said. Hopefully, someone with the real knowledge could see this question and answer it within comments.  

---

