Current time in Beijing, China
The current local time in Beijing is shown below. Beijing observes CST.
What's the daylight saving status?
Beijing does not observe daylight saving time. The local offset is fixed year-round.
When are sunrise & sunset today?
What are the timezone facts?
- Timezone
- Asia/Shanghai
- Standard abbreviation
- CST
- Observes daylight saving
- No
- Country
- 🇨🇳 China
- Business hours
- 09:00 – 17:00 local
What's the timezone history of Beijing?
Beijing sits at the longitudinal centre of the single Chinese national timezone, with the city's clock matching solar time within minutes. This means cities to the west of Beijing experience progressively wider gaps between civil and solar time, with Xinjiang in the far west operating around two hours behind solar noon. Beijing's status as the official reference for China Standard Time (technically Beijing Time) means national broadcasting, train schedules, and government activity all key to the capital's clock.
What are the working hours in Beijing?
Beijing's working day runs 09:00 to 18:00 across the government and major state-owned enterprise sector that dominates the city's employment. The 90-minute lunch break is more substantial than in Shanghai, with offices often quieting between 12:00 and 13:30. The Chinese New Year shutdown in late January or early February produces the year's largest single closure, with the National Day holiday week beginning 1 October producing the second major break. Government activity during the annual Two Sessions in March attracts national attention.
Where is Beijing?
Beijing sits in northeastern China on the northern edge of the North China Plain, the capital and political centre of the People's Republic with a metropolitan population of around 22 million. The geography is shaped by the surrounding Yan Mountains to the north and west, which historically protected the city and along which the Great Wall passes, and the gradual descent to the plains and coast extending eastward toward Tianjin and the Bohai Sea about 130 kilometres away.