SUMMARY:

      Back in June 2010, the Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited (HKIRC) was granted approval by ICANN to administer Chinese equivalent of the ".hk" top level domain name, the Chinese term for Hong Kong, to eliminate language barriers. Subsequently, free and priority registration of the Chinese domain has been offered to current English domain users, with any new customers able to register both Chinese and English ".hk" domain names for the price of one.

      HKIRC has now announced its plan to launch [Chinese Characters] domain categories in February/March 2011 (exact dates to be confirmed). In preparation for the launch, application for [Chinese Characters].hk domain names will no longer be accepted from 18 January 2011 onwards. From 18 January 2011, you will only be able to register [Chinese Characters], and all existing customers with a registered [Chinese Characters].hk domain name will be automatically allocated a corresponding [Chinese Characters] domain name for free.

Source from jdsupra