China Standard Time

This is a rough time of year in China for anyone who likes it really dark when they sleep. While China is roughly similar in size to the continental U.S., China has only one time zone versus the four in the U.S. There is also no day light savings time. I'm told that they had day light savings time at one point, but it apparently caused too much confusion in the countryside so they discontinued it. So it’s one time everywhere all the time in China. The good thing is you never have to change your watch no matter where you are in the country and you don’t have to remember “spring forward, fall back”. The bad thing is that it gets light at about 4:45am right now, which drives me crazy. I’ve taken to wearing the eyeshades you use on the plane on trans-Pacific flights. When we lived in the Netherlands, it was the opposite issue – it stayed light until almost 11pm. For me that was much better, since you could actually enjoy the long days after work. The only time I take any advantage of the early, early sunrises is when I’m in the jet-laggy week that follows a US trip and I’m waking up at 4am anyway. I’ll go for the occasional 5am walk. Not much action at that hour, except you can faintly hear the soldiers at a base nearby shouting out their marching songs in early morning drills.