Two Routes to Taiwan: Eurasia in 217ms vs America in 345ms
Taiwan is 7,500km from Tbilisi and 7,000km from Minsk. Roughly the same distance. But the internet routes are completely different.
Our probe in Tbilisi sends a packet to Taiwan — and it flies west through Belgrade, Vienna, Munich, Frankfurt, Paris, London, crosses the Atlantic to Montreal, passes through five American cities from Detroit to San Francisco, and only then crosses the Pacific to Taipei. 32 hops, 345ms, three continents.
Our probe in Minsk sends the same packet — and it flies east through Moscow, one jump to Frankfurt, then Hong Kong, and Taiwan. 17 hops, 217ms, one continent.
Same destination. A difference of 128ms and 15 hops. Why?
Two Carriers, Two Philosophies
The answer lies in the very first visible hop after leaving the local network.
The Tbilisi packet enters Cogent Communications (AS174) — an American Tier-1 carrier headquartered in Washington DC. Cogent built its network in the 1990s as an American company: first covered the US, then expanded to Europe. Transatlantic cable: yes. Transpacific cable: yes. Direct Europe→Asia cable: no. So any Asian traffic via Cogent automatically loops through the US — this is not an exception, it is the architecture.
The Minsk packet enters TransTeleCom (AS20485) — a subsidiary of RZD, Russian Railways. TTK built its network along railway lines: thousands of kilometers of fiber along the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok, then into China. This is not a submarine cable — it is terrestrial fiber along the world's longest railway. Frankfurt to Hong Kong in one hop, 167ms, across the entire Eurasian continent.
Cogent: ocean architecture via the Atlantic and Pacific. TTK: continental architecture via Eurasia. Both reach Taiwan, but by completely different paths.
The American Route
| Hop | City | RTT |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Belgrade, RS | 36ms |
| 11 | Vienna, AT | 50ms |
| 13 | Frankfurt, DE | 60ms |
| 14 | Paris, FR | 159ms* |
| 15 | London, GB | 73ms |
| 16 | Liverpool, GB | 168ms |
| 17 | Montreal, CA | 161ms |
| 19 | Detroit, US | 153ms |
| 20 | Chicago, US | 163ms |
| 22 | Denver, US | 207ms |
| 24 | San Francisco, US | 204ms |
| 27 | San Jose, US | 210ms (HiNet) |
| 29 | Los Angeles, US | 329ms |
| 32 | Taipei, TW | 345ms |
*Paris anomaly: routers process ICMP with low priority — real delay is around 30ms.
The Atlantic jump Liverpool→Montreal — 161ms for ~5,500km. Submarine cable from Liverpool to Canada — most likely TAT-14.
HiNet appears in San Jose — hops 27-28 belong to HiNet (AS9680), Taiwan's state provider Chunghwa Telecom. HiNet maintains its own node in San Jose — this is where Cogent hands off to the Taiwanese operator.
The San Jose→Los Angeles jump: 207ms→329ms — the packet has already crossed the Pacific. Geolocation shows "Los Angeles" but the actual path is: San Jose → submarine cable → Taiwan.
The Eurasian Route
| Hop | City | RTT |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Minsk, BY | 5ms |
| 7 | Moscow, RU | 11ms |
| 8 | Frankfurt, DE | 36ms |
| 10 | Frankfurt, DE | 33ms (CTGNet) |
| 11 | Hong Kong, HK | 201ms |
| 12 | Banqiao, TW | 238ms |
| 17 | Taipei, TW | 217ms |
Moscow→Frankfurt in 36ms — TTK carries the packet across Western Europe in 25ms from Moscow. Terrestrial route through Poland and Germany.
Carrier handoff in Frankfurt — hop 10 shows CTGNet (AS23764) — China Telecom Global. This is where TransTeleCom hands off to the Chinese operator. Frankfurt is one of China Telecom's largest peering points in Europe.
Frankfurt→Hong Kong in 167ms — one hop, ~9,200km. Terrestrial route along the Trans-Siberian to Vladivostok, then to Hong Kong.
Hong Kong→Taiwan in 37ms — final leg via Data Communication Business Group (AS3462), Taiwan's state operator.
Why the Land Route Is Faster Than the Sea Route
The result seems paradoxical: the route through Russia and China — 217ms. The route through the US — 345ms. The overland path through two "difficult" states turns out to be faster than the maritime path through democracies.
The explanation is geometry and architecture.
Geometry. The straight line Minsk→Taiwan through Russia and China is about 7,000km. The route via the Atlantic, US, and Pacific is about 20,000km. Physics does not lie: fewer kilometers means fewer milliseconds.
Tbilisi is geographically further south — a direct overland route through Central Asia would be even shorter. But Cogent has no infrastructure in that region, so traffic goes where Cogent exists — across the Atlantic.
Architecture. TransTeleCom was built with one purpose — to connect Europe to Asia by land. The Trans-Siberian Railway is 9,000km of straight track from Moscow to Vladivostok. Fiber along the railway follows the same straight line. No ocean detours, no intermediate continents.
Cogent was built as an American operator. Europe was an extension, Asia was another extension. Between them — the US as mandatory transit.
Taiwan in the Global Topology
Taiwan connects to the world via Hong Kong to the west and via the US to the east. Both directions are geopolitically vulnerable. Taiwan is actively investing in diversification — new cables to Japan, the Philippines, and directly to the US bypassing Hong Kong.
Our traceroutes reflect this reality: Belarusian traffic goes via Hong Kong (western path), Georgian traffic via San Jose (eastern path). Both routes are vulnerable for different reasons — one depends on the political situation in Hong Kong, the other on Cogent's architectural constraints.
Monitoring
GeoCables tracks both routes in real time using our own probes in Minsk and Tbilisi, connected to the RIPE Atlas network.
- Minsk → Taiwan: 217ms | TransTeleCom → CTGNet → HiNet | via Eurasia
- Tbilisi → Taiwan: 345ms | Cogent → HiNet | via America
If the geopolitical situation changes and one of the paths becomes unavailable — we will see it in the traceroutes first.
Related: Cogent vs NTT → · Why NTT Routes All Asian Traffic Through the USA → · Georgia to Hong Kong in 214ms →
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