LIFESTYLE Time Zoned: 4800 Kilometres, 1 Time Zone

In a country the size of China, one would expect to find several time zones. However, (nearly) the whole country observes the same local time. What does this mean for day to day living? 

Four AM sandwiches.  Evil alarm clocks. Bewildered mornings. Dinner plates that begin to look an awful lot like pillows after a certain point in the meal… the dreaded jet lag follows every intrepid traveller across the globe, a niggling (or glaring) reminder of our body’s confusion when we transplant ourselves from one time zone to the next.  Ok, so crossing a border or a few lines of longitude doesn’t always interfere much with our internal ‘body clocks’. But what happens when you cross many such lines… within a single country?

Let’s begin at the beginning. Time zones are regions where the same standard time is used. So much, so simple. In an ideal, abstract world, the globe would be divided into 24 time zones, each spanning exactly 15 degrees of  longitude, and differing by 1 hour from its neighbours.

The time in each zone would usually be defined by its offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), where UTC is based on the prime meridian (0 degrees longitude). Move east from 0, and every 15 degrees adds an hour – UTC+1 means to 15 degrees east, UTC+2 to 30 degrees east, and so on. The reason for this numerical rigmarole is pretty straightforward –  it means that the Sun is at its highest in the sky in each zone around noon. It’s an elegant link between the abstract worlds of mathematics and geometry, and the very organic, human biology of staying alive.  We need light to see, to cultivate crops, to receive essential nutrients, and to regulate our sleep cycles. 

But what happens when time is governed by a centralised conceptual system, untethered from the sun’s passage through the sky in favour of a much broader united time zone? 

Despite being more or less the same size as the USA, China has only one time zone. In theory, its breadth across the globe means that China could span five zones – but officially, wherever you are in the People’s Republic, the hour remains the same.

Stretching about 4800 kilometers (3000 miles) from its western border with Pakistan all the way to the East China Sea, China covers more than 60 degrees of longitude, incorporating 5 ideal time zones with UTC offsets ranging from UTC+5 to UTC+9. 

But don’t touch your watch dial – wherever you end up, the time is UTC+8, or what’s known internationally as China Standard Time (CST). Within the country, it’s referred to as  ‘Beijing Time’. The ‘special administrative regions’ of Macau and Hong Kong have the same UTC offset as the rest of the country.

But let’s turn back the clock, so to speak. From around 1918 until 1949, China did have 5 time zones: Kunlun (UTC+05:30), Sinkiang-Tibet (UTC+06:00), Kansu-Szechwan (UTC+07:00), Chungyuan (UTC+08:00), and Changpai (UTC+08:30). But in 1949, Communist Party Chairman, Mao Zedong, decided that all of China was to use Beijing Time.

But there’s one province that keeps two time zones in parallel, preserving an independent  UTC+06:00 zone, as well as Beijing Time.  Xinjiang Time, also known as Ürümqi Time, is two hours behind Beijing Time, due to its geographical location in the westernmost part of the country.  On the one hand, if it’s 7 a.m. in Beijing, it’s also officially 7 a.m. 2,000 miles away in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital — even if the moon is still shining. 

Some local Xinjiang authorities now use both time standards simultaneously;  for instance, Television stations schedule programmes in different time standards, depending on the subject of the transmission. Chinese channels are programmed according to Beijing time, while neighbouring Uyghur and Kazakh channels adhere to Xinjiang time! 

Understandably, this coexistence of double time zones can be the cause of some confusion. Making a plan? Be sure to specify Xinjiang Time or Beijing Time – sometimes, this means converting the time according to the ethnicity of the other party. 

Beijing Time users in Xinjiang usually schedule their daily activities two hours later than those who live in eastern China. Shops, offices, and workplaces in Xinjiang are often open from 10am to 7pm Beijing Time, which means 8am to 5pm in Ürümqi Time; this is known as ‘work/rest’ time in Xinjiang. To make matters even more confusing, local authorities  often shift morning sessions 30–60 minutes earlier, and the afternoon session 30 minutes later; this extends the lunch break for about an hour, to avoid the intense mid-day heat of summer. 

All this time-shifting can be a literal (and figurative) headache: “It’s hard to adjust,” says Gao Li, a sanitation worker in Urumqi. “I often think we must be the only people who eat dinner at midnight.” Trains, schools, and airports operate at strange hours; sometimes students must even sit for national exams in the middle of the night. Ready for dinner at 3am? No problem, the restaurants are still open. 

But fear not, if you find yourself in Xinjiang and befuddled by the clock.  The TAG Heuer GMT models – check out our Carrera Twin Time, Aquaracer GMT or Autavia GMT editions – can keep track, simultaneously.  Originally designed to help pilots measure time in two time zones for take- off and landing, since the 1950’s, our Twin Time feature has allowed the wearer to view multiple times immediately; for instance, on the TAG Heuer Autavia GMT COSC (ref. WBE511A), a fourth hand can be set independently to track a second time on the bezel, while the bezel itself can rotate to check the time in a third zone.  So don’t get ahead of – or behind – yourself… our Twin Times move with the times.