Time difference between the United States and China

Q: What is the time difference between the United States and China?

There is no single figure. the United States spans 6 of the offsets in this data, so the difference runs from 12 hours (New York to Beijing) to 18 hours (Honolulu to Beijing). Any converter giving one number for this pair has quietly picked a city.

12 hours to 18 hours, depending on the city

Why there is no single answer

The United States spans 6 different offsets in this data — New York at UTC−5, Chicago at UTC−6, Denver at UTC−7, Los Angeles at UTC−8, Anchorage at UTC−9, Honolulu at UTC−10. One number cannot cover 6 offsets, so any single figure for "the United States to China" is a choice of city — declared or not. That is why two sources can both be right and still disagree, and why the useful answer is the table rather than the number.

Every combination

From	To	Usual difference	Changes in the year
New York	Beijing	12 hours ahead	yes — also 13 hours
Chicago	Beijing	13 hours ahead	yes — also 14 hours
Denver	Beijing	14 hours ahead	yes — also 15 hours
Los Angeles	Beijing	15 hours ahead	yes — also 16 hours
Anchorage	Beijing	16 hours ahead	yes — also 17 hours
Honolulu	Beijing	18 hours ahead	no

When the gap moves

5 of these 6 combinations change by an hour at some point in the year. New York, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and Anchorage go forward on the second Sunday in March and back on the first Sunday in November; Honolulu and Beijing do not change their clocks. Where the two sides change on different weekends, there is a stretch of days when the difference is what neither party expects.

Frequently asked questions

What is the time difference between the United States and China?

There is no single figure. the United States spans 6 of the offsets in this data, so the difference runs from 12 hours (New York to Beijing) to 18 hours (Honolulu to Beijing). Any converter giving one number for this pair has quietly picked a city.

How many hours ahead is China of the United States?

It depends which part of the United States you mean. The table on this page gives every combination; the extremes are 12 hours and 18 hours.

Does the difference between the United States and China change during the year?

Yes. 5 of the 6 city combinations here shift by an hour at some point, because the two sides change their clocks on different weekends or one of them does not change at all.

About these places

New York. New York is UTC−5 in winter and UTC−4 from March to November, and it changes clocks on different weekends from Europe — a fortnight in March and a week in autumn when the transatlantic gap is an hour off what everyone expects.

Chicago. Chicago is UTC−6 in winter, the US Central zone, and the one people most often mean by an unqualified "CST" — a reading that collides with China Standard Time fourteen hours the other way.

Denver. Denver is UTC−7 in winter, the US Mountain zone, and the smallest of the four continental US zones by population. Arizona, in the same zone, does not change its clocks, so for half the year Denver and Phoenix are an hour apart.

Los Angeles. Los Angeles is UTC−8 in winter and UTC−7 from March to November. California voted in 2018 to move to permanent daylight saving and has not been able to: the change needs an act of Congress, which has not come.

Anchorage. Alaska is UTC−9 in winter, one hour behind the US Pacific coast, and covers a longitude range that would justify four zones. The state consolidated into one in 1983 so that Anchorage business hours would overlap with the rest of the country.

Honolulu. Hawaii is UTC−10 and does not change its clocks, so it drifts an hour further from the mainland every March. It is the furthest behind of any populated US zone, and the overlap with a European working day is essentially nil.

Beijing. China runs one time zone for the whole country at UTC+8, which is about five hours of sun from end to end. In Kashgar, in the far west, the sun is overhead at around 3 PM by the official clock, and local life runs on an unofficial parallel schedule.

The same pair from the other end

This page reads the difference as China against the United States. China to the United States states the same gap the other way round, which is the one to send someone if they are the one doing the travelling.

Other country pairs

Every the United States pair · All country pairs · City pairs