Time in China

China uses a single time zone for the whole country, even though it is very wide and should have many different times. This time zone is based on the time in Beijing, the capital city, and is called Beijing Time in China and China Standard Time around the world.

Many big countries have many time zones, but China chooses to use just one. This means that people in the far west of China have the same time as people in the far east, even though the sun looks very different in those places.

Daylight saving time, when clocks are moved forward or back to match the sunlight, has not been used in China since 1991. Today, places like Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, and Brunei all share the same time as China.

History

In the 1870s, a French Catholic missionary built the Shanghai Xujiahui Observatory. By the 1880s, officials in Shanghai French Concession began giving time announcements for ships using the time from this observatory. By the end of the 19th century, this time was changed to GMT+08:00, and the idea of a single time zone for all coastal ports in China was suggested in 1902.

Until 1913, the whole country used the time of Beijing. In 1914, the Republic of China government started using Beijing’s local time as the official time. By 1918, five different time zones were proposed. After changes in government and wars, by 1949–1950, most areas switched to use the same time as Beijing, known as UTC+08:00 or Beijing Time.

Hong Kong and Macau kept their own time policies when they joined China in 1997 and 1999, even though they are in the same UTC+08:00 zone as Beijing.

Geography

The daylight hours for different places in China, using Beijing Time, show how much the country stretches from west to east.

The border with Afghanistan at the Wakhjir Pass is special because the time changes a lot when you cross it—from UTC+08:00 in China to UTC+04:30 in Afghanistan.

Regions with special time regulations

Xinjiang

Main article: Xinjiang Time

In Xinjiang, two time standards are used together: Beijing Time and Xinjiang Time. Xinjiang Time, also called Ürümqi Time, is set to UTC+06:00 because of where Xinjiang is located. This makes it two hours earlier than Beijing time and matches the time in nearby Kyrgyzstan.

Some local authorities in Xinjiang use both time standards. TV stations schedule shows differently depending on the time standard they are using. This mix of two time zones can be confusing, especially when people from different backgrounds talk to each other. In Xinjiang Television, the Chinese channel follows Beijing time, while the Uyghur and Kazakh channels follow Xinjiang time.

Hong Kong and Macau

Hong Kong and Macau keep their own time authorities. Hong Kong Time and Macau Standard Time are both set to UTC+08:00, the same as Beijing time, and they do not change for daylight saving. Hong Kong started using Greenwich Mean Time in 1904 and switched to UTC in 1972. Before that, they used observations from the Hong Kong Observatory.

IANA time zone database

The territory of the People's Republic of China is covered in the IANA time zone database by certain zones. The name used is "Asia/Shanghai" rather than "Asia/Beijing" because Shanghai is the largest city in that area.

Columns marked with * come from the file zone.tab of the database.

Backward compatibility zone

Some zones, like Asia/Kashgar, Asia/Chongqing, and Asia/Harbin, are kept in the "backzone" file of the IANA time zone database for older systems to still work.