To expand on the awkwardly formulated subject: As far as I know, even though China covers five geographical time zones, all of China uses the government-mandated Beijing time zone (UTC+8).
To illustrate the problem, this means that when the sun rises in Shanghai, it’s still dark in Kashgar, and the latter’s inhabitants won’t see the light for another five hours or so.
How does this affect the population? Is the time zone uniformly adopted, or do people in rural areas stick to an informal local time zone?
I imagine Inner Mongolia and Tibet might not care too much, and major business centers like Beijing, Hong Kong og Shanghai all seem to within the same geographical time zone, so in terms of business, I imagine it works out well enough, although I have no problems imagining millions of Chinese businessmen with suitcases milling around in the dark.
I have never visited Xinjiang, the desert province in the northwest of China, but I recall reading in a Lonely Planet that folks out there sometimes abide by an unofficial, local time, and call “official” time Beijing Time.
But I recall from traveling in Yunnan, which is also pretty far west, that business and life were indeed pretty sleepy in the mornings.
I don’t understand the problem. Suppose I am in Beijing and get up in the morining at 7 am. Now I travel west the equivalent of three time zones and want to get up at the same time in relation to the sun so I get up at 10 Chinese Official Time. What’s wrong with that?
In fact, I would argue that using UT everywhere would make more sense and the only reason we have time zones is that we are used to that system which might have made sense when communications were slow but not today.
I just finished explaining to someone how to follow the servers an email went through and how to calculate times from the offsets. The email has gone around the world and she was totally confused by all the corrections. Using universal time does away with this problem.
China has done it internally and it would be better to do it globally.
Actually, while China covers five time zones, together they amount to less than five hours: Apparently each time zone is 30 minutes, meaning the span is just 2.5 hours.
sailor, while I agree about using UTC independently of “solar time”, I think you’re underestimating, in your example, the problem of time lag. I’m in Norway, and I work with an American company. There is a six-hour time difference. If I were to follow a Norwegian work schedule, I would hardly ever talk to my colleagues; I would be leaving work about two hours after they arrived at work.
Well, sailor, you seem to be solving a problem that most of us don’t find worrisome. Either way, someone is going to have to do figuring. For those applications that require universal time, let them use it. For everything else – well, if a few people like you and your friend are annoyed because you have to convert – that doesn’t really bother the rest of us.
Nothing, so long as no one in Western China is expected to do business with Beijing at 9 AM.
You miss the point–namely, that throughout China, everyone not only uses the same time number, but is expected to DO EVERYTHING at the same time, too.
This morning, for instance, I (NYC) had to interview someone in Santa Fe, NM. Just by looking at what the current PT was, I knew that it would be inappropriate for me to call at 9 AM ET. Without that, how exactly would I know? Esp. in those intermediate regions that lie close to the current time zone borders?
Yes, everyone can operate on their own schedules. But knowing that 9AM-5PM local time = standard workday has huge advantages for most businesses.
acsenray, I think you are missing the point. If you deal only with local people then you do not need to conevert in any case and the problem does not exist but if you deal with people or events in other parts of the globe you have to convert no matter what. The question is “what system is objectively better?” and just because we are used to something and find it easier does not mean it is objectively better as the American system of measurements show.
We have a hard time adjusting to the idea that someone may be starting their day at 14:00 and yet we have no problem with the idea that July falls in the middle of the winter in the Southern hemisphere. It is totally illogical but it is what we are used to.
Using one single Universal Time does not do away with the need to convert but it simplifies a number of things like not having to specify what time you’re talking about. Right now if you are in America and want to talk to someone in Sweden you need to know the time difference and then do your calculations. that is no different from knowing the time difference and doing your calculations in UT. You are just not used to it.
In the 19th century most European nations made a big effort and converted to the metric system because it was objectively better and it paid off but I suppose at the time it was a big headache. now it is what Europeans think in. Using UT would be the same thing.
BTW, I will point out that although it may be called “Beijing Time” it is 7 hrs ahead of UT and corresponds to 105 E longitude which is well West of Beijing which is 116E. It would more appropriately be called “Chengdu Time” and corresponds to central China and not Beijing.
You have the same case in Europe where CET is used from Spain all the way to some Eastern European countries. In general people in Spain say they keep later hours compared to other countries but the fact is their local time is really saying it’s later than it really is by the sun. It is not difficult for people to shift their schedule an hour or even two in either direction.
I may not be used to having to figure out what time it is in Sweden to make phone calls, but I am used to figuring out what time it is in Calcutta to make calls. Under your system, instead of just converting time zones, I would have to figure out when people are likely to be in their offices or otherwise available to take calls. Your system is not objectively better, sailor, it’s just replacing one arbitrary standard with another.
Two things. One is that for official business pretty much everything runs on Beijing time. It ain’t such a big deal because as far west as Sichuan, the time difference isn’t that extreme. If you go further west than Sichuan, the land is basically uninhabited and there is little in the way of industrialization. I do remember being in Lhasa and watching the sun go down at 23:00 and getting up early with stars out at 8:00.
If you do go further west than Sichuan, people do use the unofficial local time.
Planes, trains and buses in the entire country run on the standard Beijing time. I took a 10 hour train that arrived in Wuhan at 7:00 this morning (which is 1-2 hours “time difference” from Beijing), got on a plane back to Shanghai and never had to reset my watch.
[Sure it’s darker in Wuhan at 7:00 am than it is in Shanghai, but Wuhan is a grey industrial city that never sees the sun anyhoo :)]
