Does China only have 1 time zone?
Mia Horton
Updated on May 13, 2026
Though 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's 7 a.m. in the Forbidden City, it's also officially 7 a.m. 2,000 miles to the west in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region — even if the stars are still out there.