How many time zones are there in China?

China has one official time zone: China Standard Time, or UTC+8.

This nationwide standard is commonly called Beijing Time, even though China stretches across a huge east–west distance. Geographically, the country spans the equivalent of roughly five solar time zones, from about UTC+5 to UTC+9. Using one clock keeps government, transport, business and communications synchronized across the country.

The policy was established after the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949, when the new government adopted a single national time based on the former Central Time zone. China previously used several regional time zones, especially during the first half of the twentieth century.

The single official time creates striking local differences. In western Xinjiang, sunrise and sunset occur much later by the clock than they do in eastern China. Some residents informally use Xinjiang Time, two hours behind Beijing Time, but it is not the country’s official standard. China has also not observed daylight saving time since 1991.