What is "gbk"

GBK is an extension of the GB2312 character set for simplified Chinese characters, used in the People's Republic of China.

GB abbreviates Guojia Biaozhun, which means national standard in Chinese, while K stands for Extension ("扩展", "Kuozhan"). GBK not only extended the old standard GB2312 with Traditional Chinese characters, but also with Chinese characters that were simplified after the establishment of GB2312 in 1981. With the arrival of GBK, certain names with characters formerly unrepresentable, like the "róng"(镕) character in former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji's name, are now representable. 0.3% of all web pages use GBK in January 2016.