The division into time zones didn’t always exist. As late as the 19th century, different countries and even cities operated on their own time, based on daylight. The new system appeared thanks to the invention of the railroad. Trains needed to run on a precise schedule so that passengers wouldn’t have to wait for transportation or arrive late.
In 1884, at a conference in Washington, delegates from 25 countries signed an agreement on the Prime Meridian. The reference point chosen was the British Greenwich, where the Royal Observatory is located. It was then decided to divide the planet into 24 time zones, although in reality, there are more; in some countries, the time is offset by only 30 or 45 minutes.
Today, it seems normal that large countries have multiple time zones. For example, Russia has as many as 11. When residents of Kaliningrad are getting ready for work, people in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky are already heading home from the office. The United States has six time zones: New York wakes up first, while Honolulu is the last. But in China, which is even larger than the U.S. in size, everyone lives at the same time.
The history developed like this. In 1912, China established five time zones. However, the country was fragmented, and some territories did not actually obey the central government. In 1949, after the Communists united China, party chairman Mao Zedong issued a decree to switch to Beijing time “for the sake of national unity.” Incidentally, this decision was not unique: in India, which gained independence in 1947, a single time zone was also introduced.
Now, the time difference from Greenwich is +8 hours, and the time zone itself is called CST—China Standard Time. This system is not convenient for everyone. For example, in the northwest Xinjiang Autonomous Region, national exams are taken in the middle of the night and restaurants open for dinner in the early pre-dawn hours. The Uyghurs and Turkic-speaking Muslims living in the region set their clocks two hours ahead. The Han Chinese, on the other hand, generally follow Beijing time. As a result, it can be difficult for representatives of different ethnic groups to agree on meeting times. However, there is no talk yet of reinstating time zones.
