TallGrove

Of the four largest countries in the world (Russia, Canada, America, and China), what sets China apart? Well, many things, but for now I don’t mean those things — as the post title reveals, I mean the time zones.

I don’t need to explain why we have different time zones, or why the world thinks they are a good thing. What I do want to talk about is why China has only one time zone. Isn’t that strange? Any country with a tolerable East-West span has multiple time zones — Russia has no less than ten — and China is certainly longitudinally hefty enough to qualify. But nope, the China Time Zone ostentatiously interrupts the nice North-South bands of color on the time zone map.

The China Time Zone

As you can see, China spans five of Russia’s time zones. I personally find that quite incredible. So, being in a position such as I am in, I took the opportunity to ask some of my students about why this is so.

Like every time I bring up a subject like this to my students, I’m immediately greeted by the CBSOD (Chinese Blank Stare of Death — I’ll write a post about it one of these days). So I elaborated. I explained why time zones exist, and why many people in the world think they are a useful convention.

“But it’s not useful,” they insisted. “How is your country not in total chaos, what with Toronto three hours ahead of Vancouver? Isn’t it extremely inconvenient to do business or talk to your relatives?”

I must admit, I hadto concede this point. It can be inconvenient, occasionally. But then I counter:

“So, since the Chinese time zone is based on Beijing time, what about those unlucky millions living in Western China? If the sun rises in Beijing at 6 o’ clock, it won’t rise in Urumqi until almost 10! And it won’t get dark until at least 1 in the morning! What are these people supposed to do? They can either spend the first few hours of morning in the pitch black, and go to bed when the sun is still high in the sky, or they can align their sleeping hours to the light/dark cycle. The former sounds like a hellish way to live, and the latter results in the Western China working hours being unsynchronized with Beijing — which is essentially what time zones do.”

I waited for enlightenment, but I only recieved the CBSOD. For all intents and purposes, the conversation was over.

I have some ideas of why China throws the world-ratified time zone convention to the winds. Perhaps it is due to the centralized nature of the government: one people, one standard. Or perhaps it is because the Western provinces are much poorer and sparsely populated than the overflowing East, and is generally looked down upon by the Eastern public. But I don’t really know, nor, I think, do the Chinese people.

What are your ideas?