Historical time zones of China

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The time zones of China refer to the time zone divisions used in China between 1918 and 1949. The first time zone plan was proposed by the Central Observatory (now Beijing Ancient Observatory) of the Beiyang government in Peking (Beijing) in 1918. The proposal divided the country into five time zones: Kunlun (UTC+05:30), Sinkiang-Tibet (UTC+06:00), Kansu-Szechwan (UTC+07:00), Changhua (UTC+08:00) and Chinghai (UTC+08:30). These time zones were ratified in 1939 by the Nationalist government in the Standard Time Conference, hosted by the Ministry of Interior of Executive Yuan. Because of the Second Sino-Japanese War, it was also stated that Kansu-Szechwan time shall be the sole national time during the war time. After the war in 1945, these five times zones were implemented national widely. In 1949, after the Chinese Civil War, the Central People's Government abolished the five time zones and announced to use a single time zone UTC+08:00 named Beijing Time (北京时间). The term Changhua Standard Time (中原標準時間) was still used by the Government of the Republic of China on Taiwan until the early 2000s.

Times zones of China from 1918 to 1949 (incl. claimed territories)
Color
Time offset	UTC+05:30	UTC+06:00	UTC+07:00	UTC+08:00	UTC+08:30
Name	Kunlun	Sinkiang-Tibet	Kansu-Szechwan	Chungyuan	Changpai
Chinese	崑崙時區	新藏時區	隴蜀時區	中原時區	長白時區
Pinyin	Kūnlún Shíqū	Xīn-Zàng Shíqū	Lǒng-Shǔ Shíqū	Zhōngyuán Shíqū	Chángbái Shíqū
Name origin	Kunlun Mountains	Sinkiang (Xinjiang) and Tibet	Kansu (Gansu) and Szechwan (Sichuan)	Central Plain	Changpai (Changbai) Mountains
Ref. longitude	82°30′E	90°E	105°E	120°E	127°30′E
Approx. present day tz database	CN Asia/Kashgar	CN Asia/Urumqi MN Asia/Hovd	CN Asia/Chongqing MN Asia/Ulaanbaatar	CN Asia/Shanghai HK Asia/Hong_Kong MC Asia/Macau MN Asia/Choibalsan TW Asia/Taipei	CN Asia/Harbin

• Time in China
• Time zones