4) China Only Has One Time Zone
Image VIA
Big deal! The UK only has one time zone. Yeah, but we’re tiny. This Chinese idea of sticking to just one time – Beijing time – means that the people in the far West of the country, thousands of miles from Beijing, don’t see sunrise until 10:00am. America isn’t much bigger than China and it has four time zones (greedy).
China hasn’t always been such a mono-timed place. In 1912 there were four time zones in use, but in 1949 the Communist party Chairman Mao Zedong decided that everyone should share the same clock to enhance the feeling of national unity.
This determination to stick to one time for all has caused friction within China. The Uighur minority (pictured), who have historically been a downtrodden section of the community, ignore Beijing’s clock. They set their clocks two hours before official time as part of their general two finger salute to the man.
