HKIX isn't really needed, they added a NTT pipe -- and NTT is very present at the HKIX.
At this stage, some eqix peering and maybe some local peering (private) will be all they should need to be better than 99% of the western companies attempting to run 'networks' here.
Not really. Test from one of my Beijing test servers to their Singapore network. NTT America is great for anything but... Mainland access.
[root@cn2 ~]# traceroute 103.253.144.1
traceroute to 103.253.144.1 (103.253.144.1), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 10.0.9.123 (10.0.9.123) 1.017 ms 0.962 ms 0.927 ms
2 115.47.0.254 (115.47.0.254) 4.661 ms 4.629 ms 4.598 ms
3 118.145.8.213 (118.145.8.213) 1.241 ms 2.122 ms 2.093 ms
4 60.195.255.201 (60.195.255.201) 1.330 ms 1.250 ms 1.191 ms
5 124.202.11.125 (124.202.11.125) 3.337 ms 3.312 ms 3.319 ms
6 202.99.1.213 (202.99.1.213) 2.830 ms 3.472 ms 3.308 ms
7 14.197.246.209 (14.197.246.209) 53.145 ms 46.274 ms 46.623 ms
8 221.4.0.134 (221.4.0.134) 45.793 ms 45.631 ms 45.416 ms
9 221.4.0.133 (221.4.0.133) 48.914 ms 49.061 ms 48.884 ms
10 120.80.2.45 (120.80.2.45) 48.241 ms 48.071 ms 47.883 ms
11 120.81.0.113 (120.81.0.113) 41.644 ms 41.520 ms 41.559 ms
12 219.158.99.93 (219.158.99.93) 45.363 ms 45.379 ms 219.158.99.109 (219.158.99.109) 51.755 ms
13 219.158.97.98 (219.158.97.98) 48.590 ms 47.074 ms 47.818 ms
14 219.158.97.118 (219.158.97.118) 61.913 ms 61.469 ms 61.332 ms
15 219.158.38.98 (219.158.38.98) 85.715 ms 85.005 ms 84.951 ms
16 as-0.r20.sngpsi02.sg.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.4.91) 171.996 ms 171.985 ms 158.326 ms
17 ae-1.r00.sngpsi02.sg.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.4.143) 148.362 ms 158.126 ms 148.701 ms
18 103.253.144.1 (103.253.144.1) 149.359 ms 150.845 ms 160.087 ms
That's on par with our mainland optimized network... Except from Beijing to
San Jose.
Once I start seeing some actual mainland direct, be it Unicom or Telecom, this is far from an optimized network, and that's being nice. Will work great for anyone except mainland China at this point.