Although geographically China spans five time zones, all clocks throughout China are set to Beijing Time, eight hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), during UKs daylight saving time seven hours ahead. That means that as you travel within China, you will never have to adjust your watch (especially very usefull when travelling a long domestic east-west route by train or plane). Whether you travel from Beijing in the east, to Urumqi in the west, there will not be a time difference - at least officially.
Inofficially, the Xinjiang Time of Xinjiang Autonomous Province (Beijing minus 2 hours) in the very west of China is used. It's the same time which also is used by neighboring countries of Central Asia. Countries like Pakistan or Tadjikistan, bordering China in this area, are even three hours behind Beijing time. So if you cross the border there in western direction you will 'win' three hours by making one step.
Please note that there is no daylight saving time in China so the time diffeence will change to your home country if the daylight saving time is introduced there throughout the summer months of the northern hemisphere.
A good source for checking the world time is timeanddate.com. Besides a useful interactive time zone map this page also provides a world clock and a handy time zone converter.
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