China DNS Propagation Checker
Run a DNS lookup against 6 resolvers located in China — Jinan · Guangzhou · Hangzhou · Hangzhou · Beijing · Hangzhou.
- Resolved
- No answer
- Checking
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Jinan
China
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Guangzhou
China
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Hangzhou
China
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Hangzhou
China
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Beijing
China
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Hangzhou
China
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What checking DNS from China tells you
A DNS resolver keeps a cached copy of each record for as long as its time-to-live allows, and does so separately in every location. A change you have published can be live on one resolver while another still serves the old answer.
Checking from China looks up the record on servers inside the country, so you see what people there actually get rather than what a resolver on another continent returns.
This matters most right after you edit a record: an update visible on a global resolver like 8.8.8.8 can still be stale at a local ISP in China until its cached copy expires. The check confirms the new value has reached the resolvers your China visitors depend on.
China's public resolvers are run by its own internet giants: AliDNS at 223.5.5.5 by Alibaba, DNSPod at 119.29.29.29 by Tencent, and 114DNS at 114.114.114.114, the long-standing independent. Foreign public resolvers are slow or unreliable from inside the country, so these are what Chinese users actually query.
Checking from China matters whenever you serve users there, because the address a Chinese resolver returns is the address those visitors are routed to, and it does not always match what the rest of the world sees.
A record that resolves perfectly from Europe can time out, resolve differently, or point somewhere unreachable from within China. Testing against Chinese servers is the only way to know which of those is happening.
- AliDNS223.5.5.5 Operated by Alibaba; dominates public-resolver use
- DNSPod119.29.29.29 Operated by Tencent; dominates public-resolver use
- 114DNS114.114.114.114 The number Chinese technicians reach for first
Chinese resolvers answer queries worldwide, but the results for some domains are affected by national network filtering. Treat an unexpected answer from these servers as a property of the network the query passed through, not as proof that your own DNS records are wrong.
How DNS propagation works
Every DNS record carries a time-to-live: the seconds a resolver may keep its cached answer before asking again. Change a record and resolvers holding the old value keep serving it until that timer runs out.
Propagation is this expiry playing out across many independent resolvers, so a lower time-to-live set ahead of a change makes it take effect sooner. There is no fixed waiting period — each record's time-to-live decides how long the old answer lingers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do DNS servers in China return different results than 8.8.8.8?
Two things cause it. Each resolver caches independently, so one can hold an older answer than another.
And content delivery networks reply based on where the asking resolver is, steering a resolver in China toward a nearby edge node.
Both answers can be correct at the same time for their own location.
How long until a DNS change is visible in China?
It depends on the record's time-to-live, not on the country.
Resolvers in China keep the previous answer until their cached copy expires, then pick up the new one.
If you lowered the time-to-live before making the change, it appears sooner; otherwise the old value can persist until the original timer elapses.
Which DNS server should users in China use?
For most people the resolver their internet provider assigns is fine and usually the lowest latency.
Anyone who wants an alternative can point to a public resolver reachable from China, such as Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) or Google (8.8.8.8); the right choice depends on whether you value speed, privacy, or filtering.
Why check DNS from China specifically?
Because it shows what visitors in China actually resolve, which can differ from a global lookup.
If your audience is in China, or you have moved hosting or mail there, checking against in-country resolvers confirms the records have reached the servers those users rely on.
Why does my domain resolve to a strange IP from China?
Domains affected by national filtering can receive altered answers inside China, and some foreign IP ranges are unreachable even when the DNS answer is technically correct. If your domain is unaffected, Chinese resolvers return your real records like anyone else. The check tells you which situation you are in.
Which resolver should I trust for a China test?
Query all three big ones when you can. AliDNS, DNSPod and 114DNS are operated independently of each other, so an answer that agrees across them reflects what Chinese users genuinely resolve. A disagreement between them usually means caches in different states of expiry, same as anywhere.
