I Don’t Like China’s Time Zone

Actually, unlike what Trivial Pursuit will tell you, there is only one
time zone in China, and that makes me mad. For the third largest country
in the world, after Russia and Canada, you’d think they would at least
split it up a bit, but no. We are talking China here; where unlike Russia
who likes to believe all things rotate around Moscow, China really does
evolve around Beijing. Since Kublai Khan made this the capital of his
Mongol empire around 1000 AD, Beijing has set the standard for this part
of Asia.

With all that arrogance, it decreed that all of China would follow
Beijing time, which unfortunately for Beijing, is not the best for the
city. Ok, its not the best for me, and as I am the center of my existence,
I’m gonna tell you why.

I don’t care if most Chinese still farm the land, thereby following the
sun. Not bureaucrats in a faraway city. I don’t care if, even in Beijing,
the shop owners like the settings so they can start work by daylight. I
don’t even care if the time is suitable for most of central China, versus
the coastal area where I live. I care that it’s dark when I leave work at
night!

Ok, now I’m starting to think all in China doesn’t revolve around
Beijing bureaucrats, or they’d have changed time by now.

See, as an office worker (again!), I don’t have time in the morning to
do much more than scrub my face and haul-ass to work. It is the
afternoons, when I am through with work for the day and want to relax,
that I desire sunshine. I would rather see what is happening around me on
my leisurely way home than my quick sprint to the office.

I know all
ya’ll, groping your way home with the spring forward, fall back crap in
America, can understand. I never understood why it wasn’t the opposite.
Yeah, I’ve heard the school kids shouldn’t walk to school in the dark
augment, and the farmers need light scam, but I believe neither. First,
kids don’t vote, so screw ’em. Second, farmers follow the sun, as the
Chinese farmers do, and couldn’t care what the clock says.

Ok, so why all this bitching? Its because China is on one time zone,
the wrong one! If this were Russia, Japan, or Korea, we would be at least
one, if not two hours ahead. So, instead of the sun setting at 5pm, it
would set at 7pm. Instead of me taxi-ing home in the dark, I’d get to see
a sunset at least (if the smog wasn’t too bad!). And instead of daylight
being wasted as I slept to a reasonable hour (6am is NOT reasonable), it
could be allocated where not just I, but a few hundred million others
would want it too, in the evening!

I’ve heard that China tried the multiple time zone gig and was unable
to master the concept. If this is true, and unlike the notoriously
disorganized Russians, they can’t figure out how to run trains and the
like in multiple zones, they will reach an organizational low in my humble
opinion.

Until the glorious day that reason prevails, and the office workers of
Beijing are rewarded for all their work with a sunlit evening, I will
fight on for the cause of proper illumination, here, there, everywhere!
Let the time revolution begin!