Keeping odd hours across China's single time zone

New York

SOME days, the sun does not come up until 10am or later. People eat lunch after 2pm, or even after 4pm if they are not in a rush. The school day stretches so late that children cannot get home in time to catch their favourite cartoon shows.

Why are the clocks in Urumqi, China, so far out of kilter with the cycles of the sun? Because of a legacy of Mao Zedong and the Communist Party's desire for unified control. Although China is almost as wide as the continental United States, the whole country is officially in just one time zone - Beijing time.

So when it is 7am in the Forbidden City, it is also officially 7am 2,000 miles (3,220 km) to the west in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region - even if the stars are still out there.

That can lead to headaches - and lost sleep. "It's hard to adjust," said Gao Li, a sanitation worker in Urumqi. "I often think we must be the only people who eat dinner at midnight."

So schools, airports and train stations operate at odd hours; national exams are sometimes given in the dead of night; and restaurants stay open for dinner into the wee hours.

The eccentricities of the clock also tend to divide people in Xinjiang by ethnicity. The Uighurs, Turkic-speaking Muslims who consider the region their homeland, tend to set their clocks two hours earlier, to more closely match the local day. But the Han Chinese who live there, members of China's predominant ethnic group, generally follow Beijing time.

The discrepancies can be a source of confusion and frustration, especially for younger people who frequently socialise across ethnic lines.

Jin Xiaolong, 28, who teaches parkour, a French athletic discipline, said that scheduling classes with his Uighur friends in Urumqi can be a challenge. Now, he makes a point of clarifying to his friends: He only deals in Beijing time. NYT