Hacker News Reader

I actually liked the one time zone system in China when I lived there. It made scheduling work across different cities a little more convenient, and I didn't mind that the sunrise/sunset didn't always exactly line up to what I am accustomed to.

View on HN

I can understand not exactly lining up, but considering how large the country is and how Beijing is so far east it seems like people in the west would have the sun rise at 2:00 or the sunsetting at 14:00. I don't know this for certain I'm just curious how not lined up it can get at the most extremes.

As long I am not working the same hours as people in the far east of China, I would not really care about what the clock reads at sunset: I'd just get up around sunrise at n o'clock, spend my hours at work and finally go to bed at m o clock. The only difference between n=6, m=22 or n=22,m=14 is habituation. We're used to the former.

But it would definitely screw up cultural references, e.g.: a "5pm tea" then can only be understood with a broader cultural context: "UK, 5pm is late in the 2nd half of the working day for them".

It must lead to some interesting language quirks around times of day. For example in the US/Canada if you say "Nobody wants to get a phone a call at 1AM" that means the same thing to anyone no matter where they're from. "I want you at your desk at 9 o'clock sharp". etc.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com