Most VPS reviews ignore the one thing that matters for a China audience: the return route. So I rented the BandwagonHost Hong Kong HKHK_8 plan and tested it the way the Chinese low-end community does — NextTrace route tracing, nationwide latency probes, and full disk/network benchmarks. Here’s what the data shows.
Test configuration
The box under test is the BandwagonHost Hong Kong HKHK_8 location (provider IT7 Networks, Kowloon, Hong Kong):
| Item | Spec |
|---|---|
| CPU | AMD EPYC-Genoa, 2 cores @ 2794 MHz |
| RAM | 2.0 GiB |
| Disk | 40 GB (KVM) |
| OS | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (kernel 6.8) |
| Virtualization | KVM · AES-NI on · BBR congestion control |
| Test date | 2026-05-04 |
Route test: CN2 GIA on all three carriers
I ran NextTrace return-route traces from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu across all three carriers. Every result came back as China Telecom CN2 GIA (AS4809):
| Target | Route verdict | Key hops |
|---|---|---|
| Beijing Telecom | CN2 GIA (AS4809) | HK CTGNet → CN2 backbone → Beijing |
| Beijing Unicom | CN2 GIA (AS4809) | via CN2 backbone into China |
| Beijing Mobile | CN2 GIA (AS4809) | via CN2 backbone into China |
| Shanghai Telecom | CN2 GIA (AS4809) | HK → CN2 → Shanghai, ~27ms |
| Guangzhou Telecom | CN2 GIA (AS4809) | return only ~7.6ms |
CN2 GIA is China Telecom’s highest-grade international route. Having all three carriers return over it means fewer detours and stable latency from the mainland — that’s the core selling point of a premium Hong Kong box, and the main reason it costs more.
Nationwide latency
I pinged from 80+ probe points across all three carriers nationwide. Summary:
| Carrier | Fastest | Slowest | Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| All nodes | Hong Kong 2ms | Ürümqi (Mobile) 92ms | 46.2ms |
| China Unicom | Shenzhen 9ms | Ürümqi 72ms | 38.7ms |
| China Telecom | Dongguan 9ms | Ürümqi 86ms | 46.6ms |
| China Mobile | Nanjing 42ms | Ürümqi 92ms | 57.0ms |
East and South China were best, mostly around 30ms; Unicom was the strongest carrier overall.
Packet loss
The vast majority of probe points showed 0% loss. A handful of Mobile probes (some in North/South China) timed out or hit 100% — that’s a limitation of a single public probe run, not necessarily sustained loss, but Mobile users should test for themselves during peak hours before committing to an annual plan.
Disk performance (yabs.sh / bench.sh)
| Block size | Read | Write |
|---|---|---|
| 4k random | 187.65 MB/s (46.9k IOPS) | 188.14 MB/s (47.0k IOPS) |
| 64k | 1.64 GB/s | 1.65 GB/s |
| 512k | 2.87 GB/s | 3.03 GB/s |
| 1m | 3.19 GB/s | 3.40 GB/s |
bench.sh averaged 926 MB/s across three I/O runs. For websites, databases and Docker self-hosting, this disk won’t be your bottleneck.
International bandwidth (iperf3, receive)
| Target | Receive | Ping |
|---|---|---|
| Singapore | 6.88 Gbps | 30.4 ms |
| Los Angeles | 1.46 Gbps | 143 ms |
| London | 1.10 Gbps | 181 ms |
| Amsterdam | 1.08 Gbps | 188 ms |
| New York | 1.10 Gbps | 196 ms |
Asia-Pacific bandwidth is huge — Singapore alone hit 6.88 Gbps — and even the transatlantic links held gigabit-class speeds.
Pros and cons
Pros
- CN2 GIA return on all three carriers; low, stable latency from the mainland
- Strong random and sequential disk performance
- Excellent Asia-Pacific bandwidth
- Alipay accepted, monthly billing refundable — low cost to try
Cons
- A few Mobile probe points timed out (Mobile users should test)
- Base plan is 2C/2G; heavier workloads need a bigger plan
- More expensive than a plain-route VPS (the CN2 GIA premium)
Who it’s for
- Sites, landing pages and stores accessed from mainland China
- Low-latency API endpoints, cross-border / China-facing services
- Anyone who wants a premium route and will pay the CN2 GIA premium for it
If you’re only serving an international audience and don’t care about mainland latency, a cheaper plain-route VPS makes more sense — see the hub guide.
Buying advice
Among Hong Kong CN2 GIA boxes, HKHK_8 is first tier. My advice: start on a monthly plan, test it on your own network (especially China Mobile) for a week, confirm it’s stable, then switch to annual to lock the price.
Related: BandwagonHost vs Vultr · Best VPS for China access
