Why China Only Have One Timezone?

Imagine that you’ve found yourself in Kashgar, the western-most city in Xinjiang, China’s western-most region. Your friend sends you a text message and tells you to meet him at 3 PM. Sounds pretty straightforward, right? Not in Xinjiang. If your friend is of China’s majority Han ethnicity, you can assume that by 3 o’clock he’s referring to Beijing Standard Time. But if your friend is a Uighur, the largest ethnic minority group in Xinjiang, he might be referring to “local time,” which is two hours behind.

Photo credit: baidu.com
The reason for this confusion is simple: China, a country that is roughly a similar size as the continental United States, has only 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. The single time zone does present odd sights: In the summer, for instance, it isn’t uncommon in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, to see people enjoying a beautiful sunset … at midnight. Or for the sun to rise in the winter around 10 AM. In order to accommodate people who are inconvenienced by the time zone change, shops and restaurants in Xinjiang often adjust their hours—but the effect can still be disorienting for the unaccustomed traveler.

History

China hasn’t always had one time zone. In 1912, the year after the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, the newly-empowered government established five different time zones in the country, ranging from five and a half to eight and a half hours past Greenwich Mean Time. But in 1949, as the government consolidated control of the country, the Chairman decreed that all of China would henceforth be on Beijing time for the purpose of national unity.

Given the state of the nation in those days, the Chairman’s reasoning was legitimate: Just two decades before, China was a fragmented country with large swathes beyond the de facto control of the central government. And this decision to unify the whole country under one-time zone was hardly unprecedented: newly-independent India, for example, had instituted a similar policy just two years before.

Photo credit: baidu.com
For most people in China, the single time zone is at most a mild inconvenience, a scheduling quirk that simply requires a little adjustment. Most of China’s territory and population (more than 98%) lies in three time zones +6, +7, +8. This creates the problem of a night sky in western China when it is supposed to be morning.

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