Chinese Git Hosting Platforms Guide

What you will learn

• Understand the core purpose of Chinese Git Hosting Platforms Guide
• Master the basic usage and common options of Chinese Git Hosting Platforms Guide
• A guide to Chinese Git hosting platforms (Gitee, CODING, Tencent Cloud Code, Alibaba Cloud Code) covering feature comparisons, migration, and compliance considerations.
• Understand key concepts: Gitee (码云)
• Know when to use this feature and when to avoid it

Start with a problem

You're choosing or configuring a Git hosting solution — whether self-hosting Gitea or comparing GitHub, GitLab, and Gitee features. You're not sure which option best fits your team's needs.

One-Sentence Understanding

Chinese Git hosting platforms primarily solve two needs: faster access (no VPN required to clone/push) and data compliance (meeting China's data localization requirements under the Cybersecurity Law), though their feature maturity and ecosystem still trail GitHub.

Gitee (码云)

Features and Limitations

Gitee is the largest domestic Git hosting platform, operated by OSChina.

Known Limitations

# Gitee does not support git push --mirror (bug with Gitee→external)
# Use --force instead
git clone --bare https://gitee.com/user/repo.git
cd repo.git
git push --force --mirror https://github.com/user/repo.git

• No Git LFS support (partial in enterprise)
• Strict API rate limiting (60 req/min unauthenticated)
• Pages service is unreliable

CODING DevOps

CODING is a Tencent Cloud DevOps platform offering code hosting through deployment.

Core Capabilities

Code Hosting → CI/CD (Built-in Jenkins) → Artifact Registry → Deployment

• Native Git LFS support
• Built-in CI/CD (Jenkins + CODING CI)
• Docker image registry
• Deep Tencent Cloud integration

# CODING CI config (Jenkinsfile)
pipeline {
  agent any
  stages {
    stage('Build') {
      steps {
        sh 'npm install && npm run build'
      }
    }
    stage('Deploy') {
      steps {
        sh 'tcloud deploy --env production'
      }
    }
  }
}

Comparison with Gitee

Tencent Cloud Code

Previously Tencent Cloud DevOps (TCDev), targeting enterprise customers with code hosting, CI, and automated deployment.

Features:

• Deep integration with Tencent Cloud COS, SCF, etc.
• Internal network Git access (no public bandwidth)
• Code scanning (based on SonarQube)
• Enterprise-grade SLA

Alibaba Cloud Code

Previously Alibaba Cloud Code, now evolved into CloudEffect (云效) platform.

# CloudEffect basic Git operations
git remote add origin https://code.aliyun.com/user/repo.git
git push -u origin main

• Integrated with Alibaba Cloud DevOps toolchain (pipelines, test management)
• Git LFS support
• Built-in code scanning + security checks
• Deep DingTalk integration (review notifications, CI results)

Platform Comparison Overview

Migration Guide

From GitHub to Chinese Platforms

git clone --bare https://github.com/user/repo.git
cd repo.git
git remote add china https://gitee.com/user/repo.git  # or another platform
git push --mirror china

Issues, Wiki, and CI/CD configurations must be migrated manually — git does not carry these metadata.

Between Chinese Platforms

Use git remote or migration tools:

# Gitee → CODING
git clone --bare https://gitee.com/user/repo.git
cd repo.git
git remote add coding https://e.coding.net/user/repo.git
git push --mirror coding

Compliance and Data Residency

Under China's Cybersecurity Law, Data Security Law, and Personal Information Protection Law:

• Data localization: Important data must be stored within mainland China
• Classified protection: Enterprise platforms typically hold Level 3 (等保三级) certification
• Code auditing: Sensitive code (finance, government) should use domestic platforms
• Data export: Repositories containing personal information require security assessment for cross-border transfer

Most Chinese Git platforms host their data centers in Beijing, Shanghai, or Shenzhen.

Try it yourself

1. Practice the chinese-hosting-platforms command in a test repository and observe state changes before and after
2. Experiment with different options and compare the output differences
3. Simulate a real scenario where you would need to use this, and walk through the full process

Continue Learning

1. hosting/platform-comparison — Full platform comparison
2. hosting/gitea-setup — Self-hosted Gitea setup
3. hosting/self-hosted-git — Fully self-hosted Git service