Time in China

This article is about the time in the People's Republic of China. For the article about time in the Republic of China, see Time in Taiwan. For the traditional Chinese time keeping, see Chinese calendar § Hours of the day.

The time in China follows a single standard time offset of UTC+08:00, which is eight hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, despite China spanning five geographical time zones. The official national standard time is called Beijing Time (Chinese: 北京时间) domestically and China Standard Time (CST) internationally. The special administrative regions (SARs) maintain their own time authorities, with standards called Hong Kong Time (Chinese: 香港時間) and Macau Standard Time (Chinese: 澳門標準時間) respectively. There is no difference between Beijing time and the times in the SARs. In addition, Xinjiang unofficially uses UTC+06:00, called Ürümqi Time (Chinese: 乌鲁木齐时间).

History

Main article: Historical time zones of China

Obsoleted time zones used from 1939 to 1949

There was no nationwide time standard in China until the early 20th century. In imperial China, astrological predictions were conducted according to the time standard based on the locations of then capitals of the imperial dynasties. A summer time was observed in 1919 in Tianjin and Shanghai, and from 1935 to 1962 in parts of China.

In 1918, the Central Observatory of the Republic of China in Peking (now Beijing Ancient Observatory) proposed dividing the country into five time zones, namely Kunlun (UTC+05:30), Sinkiang-Tibet (UTC+06:00), Kansu-Szechwan (UTC+07:00), Chungyuan (UTC+08:00), and Changpai (UTC+08:30). These time zones were ratified in 1939 in the standard time conference of the Ministry of Interior of the Executive Yuan.

After the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the People’s Republic of China abolished the five time zones system and established one single time zone (UTC+08:00) called Beijing Time or China Standard Time for the entire country. The unified time zone policy was adopted by the Communist Party of China or the Central People’s Government some time between 27 September 1949 and 6 October 1949; the exact date is unknown. However, recent research suggests that the policy was most likely adopted on 27 September 1949.

Daylight saving time was observed from 1986 to 1991.

In 1997 and 1999, Hong Kong and Macau were transferred to China from the United Kingdom and Portugal and they were established as special administrative regions. Although the sovereignty of the SARs belongs to China, they retain their own policies regarding time zones for historical reasons. Due to their geographical locations, both are within the UTC+08:00 time zone, which is the same as the national standard — Beijing time.

As an illustration of the wide range, the daylight hours for the Chinese westernmost—not including Xinjiang due to local customs (see below)—and easternmost county seats are included:

Division			Daylight time
Location	County	Province	1 January	1 July
Westernmost	Zanda	Tibet	09:41 – 19:49	07:40 – 21:50
Easternmost	Fuyuan	Heilongjiang	06:54 – 15:18	03:05 – 19:08

Regions with special time regulations

Xinjiang

The People's Congress of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region proclaimed Ürümqi Time (Chinese: 乌鲁木齐时间; pinyin: Wūlǔmùqí Shíjiān) due to its geographical location in the westernmost part of the country. The time offset is UTC+06:00 which is two hours behind Beijing, and is shared with Kazakhstan. Although this is not officially recognized, it is the time observed locally by most residents and local authorities. Most stores and government offices in Xinjiang have modified opening hours, commonly running from 10am to 7pm Beijing Time (which equals 8am to 5pm in Ürümqi).

Hong Kong

Main article: Hong Kong Time

Hong Kong maintains its own time authority after transfer of sovereignty in 1997. The Hong Kong Time (Chinese: 香港時間; pinyin: Xiānggǎng Shíjiān; Cantonese Yale: Hēunggóng sìgaan) is UTC+08:00 all year round, without daylight saving observation. Greenwich Mean Time was adopted as the basis in 1904, and UTC was adopted as a standard in 1972. Before that, local time was determined by astronomical observations at Hong Kong Observatory using a 6-inch Lee Equatorial and a 3-inch Transit Circle.

Macau

Macau maintains its own time authority after transfer of sovereignty in 1999. The Macao Standard Time (Chinese: 澳門標準時間; pinyin: Àomén Biāozhǔn Shíjiān; Portuguese: Hora Oficial de Macau) is the time in Macau. The time is UTC+08:00 all year round, and daylight saving time is not applied. There was daylight saving time in the past.

IANA time zone database

File:Tz map china2010e efeledotnet.png

Map showing the IANA time zone database zones in China

The territory of the Peoples Republic of China is covered in the IANA time zone database by the following zones.

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

c.c.*	coordinates*	TZ*	comments*	Standard time	Summer time	Notes
CN	+3114+12128	Asia/Shanghai	Beijing Time	tUTC+08:00	—	Historically Chungyuan time zone
CN		Asia/Harbin		tUTC+08:00	—	Historical Changpai time zone
CN		Asia/Chongqing		tUTC+08:00	—	Historical Kansu-Szechwan time zone
CN	+4348+08735	Asia/Urumqi	Xinjiang Time	tUTC+08:00	—	Historical Sinkiang-Tibet time zone
CN		Asia/Kashgar		tUTC+08:00	—	Historical Kunlun time zone
HK	+2217+11409	Asia/Hong_Kong		tUTC+08:00	—	SAR of China
MO	+221150+1133230	Asia/Macau		tUTC+08:00	—	SAR of China

See also

• Historical time zones of China
• Hong Kong Time

External links

Government departments responsible for time services

• National Time Service Center, the Chinese Academy of Sciences
• Hong Kong Observatory (Hong Kong)
• Direccão dos Servicos Meteorológicos e Geofisicos (Macau)