Why China has only one time zone

On January 1, the sun rises at 6:54 a.m. in Fuyuan, China’s easternmost county, on the Russian border. The same morning in Akto, at the country’s western edge, it doesn’t come up until 10:16. Both towns keep the same clock: Beijing time, eight hours ahead of UTC.

The short answer is politics. China stretches across almost five geographic time zones and once had five official ones. After the Communist victory in the civil war in 1949, the whole country was put on the capital’s time, and it has stayed that way. China is the largest country in the world with a single official time zone.

China used to have five zones

Splitting the country wasn’t a foreign idea. In 1918, the Republic of China’s Central Observatory proposed five zones, each with a name: Kunlun (UTC+5:30), Sinkiang-Tibet (UTC+6), Kansu-Szechwan (UTC+7), Chungyuan (UTC+8) and Changpai (UTC+8:30).

Adoption was patchy. Through the 1930s, regions set their own time, and the result was chaos. In March 1939, a conference in Chongqing agreed to use the five zones, but put the whole country on Kansu-Szechwan time for the duration of the war with Japan. The zones came back after 1945, and a revised map was announced in 1947.

It didn’t last. As the civil war ended in 1949 and 1950, regional governments under the Communist Party switched to Beijing time, with Xinjiang and Tibet holding out for a while. The rule arrived with the change of regime and has never been reversed.

Living out of step with the sun

In the east, the effect runs the other way. In Fuyuan on July 1, sunrise is at 3:05 a.m. and sunset at 7:08 p.m. Out west, in Akto on the same day, the sun rises at 7:34 a.m. and sets at 10:26 p.m.

Tibet, also far west of Beijing, keeps the capital’s time officially. In Zanda, in western Tibet, the first sunrise of the year is at 9:40 a.m.

China doesn’t use daylight saving time either. It tried it from 1986 to 1991 and gave it up.

Xinjiang: two clocks in one city

In the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in the northwest, a second clock runs alongside the official one. Xinjiang time, also called Ürümqi time, sits two hours behind Beijing at UTC+6, the same as neighbouring Kyrgyzstan.

In February 1986, the central government approved it for civilian use in the region, while the military, railways, aviation and telecoms stayed on Beijing time. In practice the split follows ethnic lines. Most Han Chinese residents use Beijing time; most Uyghurs and some other groups use Xinjiang time.

So people have to say which clock they mean every time they set a meeting. Xinjiang Television runs its Mandarin channel on Beijing time and its Uyghur and Kazakh channels on local time. Shops and offices commonly open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Beijing time, which is 8 to 5 locally. In 2016, a street cleaner in Ürümqi told the New York Times that locals must be the only people in the world who eat dinner at midnight.

Phones got caught up in it too. In 2014, an iOS update quietly switched devices in Xinjiang to local time, and alarms set by Beijing time went off two hours late.

The choice of clock carries political weight as well. In a 2018 report on the crackdown on Muslims in Xinjiang, Human Rights Watch recorded one person’s account of a man taken away for setting his watch to Ürümqi time, which was reportedly treated as a sign of suspicion.

Hong Kong and Macau

Both special administrative regions run their own time services and aren’t bound to follow Beijing. They sit in the same geographic zone, though, so the hour matches: UTC+8, with no daylight saving since 1979.

What this means for travellers

• Heading to western China, always check whether a bus, tour or restaurant time is in Beijing or Xinjiang time. Trains and flights run on Beijing time.
• Plan your day by daylight, not the clock. In Ürümqi, Xinjiang’s capital, lunch often happens after 2 p.m. and restaurants stay open into the early hours, according to a 2016 New York Times report.
• Keep your phone on Beijing time (Asia/Shanghai) so an automatic switch doesn’t catch you out, and note the local hour separately.
• Coming from Europe or North America, remember China never changes its clocks, so the gap with home shifts by an hour when your own country does.

FAQ

How many time zones does China have?

Officially, one: Beijing time, UTC+8. Geographically, the country covers almost five.

Why does China use a single time zone?

Regions under Communist control switched to Beijing time in 1949 and 1950, after decades with several zones, and the rule was never revisited.

What time does the sun rise in western China?

It depends on the season. In Akto, Xinjiang, sunrise on January 1 is at 10:16 a.m. Beijing time.

What is Xinjiang time?

A local time two hours behind Beijing (UTC+6), used by much of Xinjiang’s population, especially Uyghurs. Transport and official bodies stick to Beijing time.

Iceland went the other way and chose a clock that runs ahead of the sun. Here’s why Iceland hasn’t changed its clocks since 1968.

Sources

• Time in China, Wikipedia (drawing on Guo Qingsheng’s 2001 study of China’s standard time): the five zones of 1918, the 1939 conference, the 1949–1950 switch, daylight saving from 1986 to 1991 and sunrise times in Fuyuan, Zanda and Akto.
• Xinjiang Time, Wikipedia: the 1986 approval, use by ethnic group, Xinjiang Television and the 2014 iOS incident.
• US media on Beijing time in Xinjiang: 10 a.m. sunrise, midnight dinners (in Chinese), China News Service, June 20, 2016, summarising a New York Times report from June 17: 10 a.m. sunrises in Ürümqi, lunch after 2 p.m., restaurants open into the early hours and the street cleaner’s quote.
• “Eradicating Ideological Viruses”, Human Rights Watch, September 9, 2018: the account of a detention linked to Ürümqi time.