What advantages does a country like China or a state like Alaska have in making their state or country one zone. (AK case two)
I can see that in China most of the country’s people is out east. But then why not let the less populated areas be in a different zone.
Same for Alaska. Juneau was Pacifc, Anchorage was Alaska-Hawaii Time Now they are Yukon.
Also why no 1/2 hour zones in the USA? Like Newfoundland in Canada.
The primary purpose of any time zone manipulation is to make life easier on businesses. For example, Port Huron is the only city in Michigan that qualifies to be in the Eastern Zone, but the majority of the Lower Peninsula (including all the major cities) are mapped into the Eastern Zone so that the auto and chemical industries are running on the same time as the banks in New York.
If all the businesses are running 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., grouping them into the same time zone eliminates a lot of lost time as people in the East wait for westerners to get to work in the morning and people in the West get unanswered phones among their eastern associates, clients, or vendors beginning in the early afternoon.
I believe the half-hour offset in Newfoundland is a (not always successful) attempt to keep them close to the clocks in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick without having their time totally offset from the sun. (At that latitude, winter days are only about four hours long; too rigid an adherence to other time zones would have them coming to and going from work before the sun came up.) I’m kidding!
I agree with tomndebb about the business side of things. Somebody worked out once that, on a typical working business day in Australia in summertime, a company in Sydney (on daylight saving time) trying to call its office in Perth (not on daylight saving time, and two timezones behind) would, after factoring in lunch, morning and afternoon teas breaks, have ten minutes in which to make the call.
I think it is important to note, as per the OP, that if everyone was in one time zone there really isn’t an issue with “business time”. In the case with China, you would alter your local time for the work day to accommodate the one time zone.
So, if I lived in the most eatern part of china, I may go to work from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. My countrymen in the most western areas would accomodate by setting the work day from 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Each group would be at work during the same period of sunlight. That’s the theory, anyway.
I wonder however, and I’m sure someone will correct me if I am wrong, if China sets the country to one standard reference for time, perhaps Hong Kong or another major business center. In that case, businesses around the country would have to adjust their schedules to accomodate the standard business time, even if that meant going to work in the dark and coming home at lunch.
I once worked in Indiana, in a situation that required intrastate travel and coordination of meetings, appointments, etc. I found to be more than disconcerting Indiana’s county-by-county employment of daylight savings time.
Having lived very near a time-zone line I can testify it can be very confusing. In a day and age of such things as teleconferencing, telecommuting and for that matter commuting by air everyone being within the same time zone is so much more sane.
You will not miss key individuals, important meetings or vital information as easily if all concerned are within the same time zone. Since time is an artificial construct anyway, it makes sense to organize it in such a manner that a large portion of the population is assisted by it.
The reality is the opposite. China runs on one time zone for things like bus, trains, planes, newscasts, etc. Then there is also local time, which generally follows the sun (remember, China is largely an agrarian nation, especially the further west you travel).
The time zone is set on Beijing time, eg the capital of China. And not on Hong Kong time, despite Hong Kong being a financial center. Coincidentally, both Hong Kong and Taiwan share the same time zone as Beijing time.
Businesses do not set their work day around the official time or “business time.” No more than I set my work day around headquarters time 17 hours difference. Certainly, I set my work practice around different time zones. I have to conference call with HQ every thursday evening at 10 or call my remote boss every morning at 7 after I get my coffee and before he goes to work.
We live in a global economy, well at least some of us do, and therefore, you live on a global time and not some time zone. You learn how to change your practice to accomodate. If your job requires you to be active in real time in the New York Stock Exchange, then it doesn’t matter what time it is where you are on the planet, you have to adjust your schedule to NY time. However, the people around you are probably going about their lives in the local time.
That’s a great summery of what goes on, thanks China Guy.
I do have a question regarding more of the hoi polloi. If people (especially those in agriculture) work on local time, but all major transportation is on Beijing time, do people keep 2 clocks going for reference, or do they just “do the math”? It seems like it would be awkward to catch a plane at 11:00 AM, but then need to work out what that meant in reference to your current location. Especially if you are traveling between zones a lot.
Remember, in China, you don’t have time zones so you just work off of official times. A plane flies at 11:00, and 11:00 means the exact same thing everywhere in the country.
They just do the math. Bus leaves at 8:00 but everyone goes to work at 11:00. No different than saying the NY stock exchange opens at 9:00 am Eastern Time and 6:00 am Pacific.