Traveling in China is an adjustment just like any other new location. For international travelers, the sights and sounds will be different wherever they land, but the one glaring consistency is the time difference.
Time Zones in China
In China, there is only one official time zone: GMT+8. This means that the time across the country is always 8 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). This is known as Beijing Time, and it is the standard across all five different hour zones that exist across the breadth China.
This can sometimes create confusion in different parts of the country. In the west and east the sun may rise and set up to 4 hours differently, but the official time is nevertheless the same. It would be comparable to the entire United States running on D.C. time. This affects people who live in the far west of China the most.
World Time Zones
We have provided a world clocks and time zone map tool to help you understand the time difference between home and China on the go. You can can find the current time in different regions and cities, and can compare time zones quickly and easily by hovering over the map.
As a traveler in China, the difference in time zones will affect you in several ways.
Jet Lag
After a 13+ hour plane ride, the jet lag can be intense. Depending on your arrival time and schedule upon landing, you may wish to sleep or stay awake on the plane. The best cure for jet lag is to power through and try to get back on a normal sleep pattern as quickly as possible.
Inter-Continental Communication
Your friends and family will likely be waiting for news of your safe arrival in China. Make sure you have a plan in place for when and how you will contact them.
It may be helpful to agree convenient times for both you and people back home for real time communication, so that you are not waking each other up at night. There is likely to be a time lag between emails, messages, etc. being read, due to people the other side of the world still being in bed when you send them.
Travelers in China simply take the local time back home and add or subtract the necessary hours to figure out the difference. An advantage of the standardized Beijing Time is that no matter where you go in China the time conversion will always be the same.
United States (Washington D.C.): GMT -5, time difference with China: 13 hours behind
United Kingdom (London): GMT 0, time difference with China: 8 hours behind
Australia (Sydney): GMT +10, time difference with China: 2 hours ahead
We've provided some examples to help you learn the process:
8:00 AM in Washington D.C. (EST) = 9:00 PM Beijing Time
8:00 AM in London, UK = 4:00 PM Beijing Time
8:00 AM in Sydney, Australia = 6:00 AM Beijing Time
Daylight Saving Time
Unlike most areas in North America and Europe, China does not acknowledge Daylight Saving Time (DST). When traveling in China, it is important to remember when other countries are observing the time change. Even though the time in China will not change, the time back home still will, which will change the time differnce (by one hour).
The Time Difference May Impact Our Services
When planning your first trip to China, we encourage you to contact us for all your travel questions. A good time to call your personal travel agent in Beijing might be anytime during our office hours from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Beijing time. Calling before 9:00 AM London time for example will ensure you reach us before our closing hours.
Keeping In Touch With Friends and Family
While traveling in China, many tourists worry about keeping in contact with their loved ones. China Highlights encourages you to find the best way to keep in touch that works for your specific needs. Share this article with your friends and family to help them understand the time difference as well so they can know the best times to reach you on your journey.
China has one official time zone, China Standard Time
China Standard Time
Currently observing CST – China Standard Time. Currently has same time zone offset as CST (UTC +8) but different time zone name. China Standard Time (CST) is 8 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This time zone is in use during standard time in: Asia.
https://www.timeanddate.com › time › zones › cst-china
(CST), which is 8 hours ahead of UTC. In China, the time zone is known as Beijing Time. In Xinjiang, China's westernmost region, the Uyghur population unofficially uses a different local time known as Xinjiang Time or Ürümqi Time, which is 2 hours behind CST.
The reason for this confusion is simple: China, a country that is of roughly similar size to the continental United States, has one time zone: Beijing Standard Time. This means that when it's 6 o'clock in the nation's capital, it's 6 o'clock almost 3,000 miles further west, in Kashgar.
China has one time zone. It is officially called China Standard Time (CST). It is 8 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+08:00). There is no daylight saving time.
Although there are practical and economic advantages to a single time zone, the impetus for standardisation was more about a signal the Chinese Communist Party wanted to send when it came to power in 1949.
Measuring around 4800 kilometers (3000 miles) from its western border shared with Pakistan to the East China Sea in the east, China covers more than 60 degrees of longitude, incorporating 5 ideal time zones with UTC offsets ranging from UTC+5 to UTC+9.
To avoid confusion, time on schedules and public notices are typically formatted in the 24-hour system, so the times 19:45 and 07:45 are understood to be 12 hours apart from each other. Spoken Chinese predominantly uses the 12-hour system and follows the same concept as A.M. (上午; shàngwǔ) and P.M. (下午; xiàwǔ).
China currently observes China Standard Time (CST) all year. DST is no longer in use. Clocks do not change in China. The previous DST change in China was on September 15, 1991.
Prior to 1972, this time was called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) but is now referred to as Coordinated Universal Time or Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). It is a coordinated time scale, maintained by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM). It is also known as "Z time" or "Zulu Time".
France, including its overseas territories, has the most time zones with 12 (13 including its claim in Antarctica). Many countries have daylight saving time, one added hour during the local summer, but this list does not include that information.
China, with a total area of 9.38 million square kilometres (3.62 million square miles) according to the World Bank, is the largest country to observe just one time zone: Beijing (or China) Standard Time.
In 1949, after the Chinese Civil War, the Central People's Government abolished the five time zones and announced to use a single time zone UTC+08:00 named Beijing Time (北京时间).
Though China is almost as wide as the continental United States, the whole country is officially in just one time zone — Beijing time. So when it's 7 a.m. in the Forbidden City, it's also officially 7 a.m. 2,000 miles to the west in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region — even if the stars are still out there.
Top 10 Largest Countries in the World (by total area km²):
Encyclopedia Britannica gives the third slot to China (9,600,013 km²) and places the United States in fourth. However, other sources, such as the United Nations and the CIA World Factbook, display a larger area for the U.S. and rank it above China.
Answer. Answer: In theory, China could have five time zones, but the country has only one official time zone. In spite of being almost the same size as the continental USA, China has only one official time zone.
The official national standard time is called Beijing Time domestically and China Standard Time internationally. China Standard Time is 8 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT + 8).
The time in China is 13 hours ahead of the time in New York when New York is on standard time, and 12 hours ahead of the time in New York when New York is on daylight saving time. China has not had daylight saving time since 1991. The IANA time zone identifier for China is Asia/Shanghai.
Nepal is 5 hours and 45 minutes ahead of GMT, because it sets the meridian of Nepal Standard Time at Gaurishankar, a mountain east of Kathmandu. The odd time difference between Nepal and India has resulted in a national joke that Nepalis are always 15 minutes late (or, Indians are 15 minutes early).
Unlike the western time orientation that accentuates the objectiveness, absoluteness and fixation of time, the Chinese traditional cultural time orientation conceives time to be subjective, relative and flexible. As is well known, the Chinese culture is greatly influenced by Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.
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