About China Standard Time
- Standard offset
- UTC+8
- Abbreviation
- CST
- Observes DST
- No
Used in: China.
China spans five geographic time zones but runs the whole country on one, set to Beijing. The offset is fixed all year, convenient for national coordination, strange for daily life at the edges.
In the far western regions the official clock is wildly out of step with the sun: by Beijing time, the sun can rise close to 10:00 AM and set near midnight.
Daylight saving time
China Standard Time does not observe daylight saving time — it stays at UTC+8 all year.
See the daylight saving time page for transition dates across every time zone.
Daylight today
Sun times at the representative location for China Standard Time.
- Sunrise
- 4:51 AM
- Sunset
- 6:56 PM
- Day length
- 14h 5m
Major cities in China Standard Time
The current local time in these cities matches China Standard Time.
- ShanghaiCN
- BeijingCN
- ShenzhenCN
- GuangzhouCN
- ChengduCN
- TianjinCN
- WuhanCN
- DongguanCN
- Xi’anCN
- NanjingCN
- HangzhouCN
- FoshanCN
- ChongqingCN
- WuzhongCN
- QingdaoCN
- ShenyangCN
- SuzhouCN
- PudongCN
- HarbinCN
- HefeiCN
- DalianCN
- ChangchunCN
- XiamenCN
- Bao'anCN
- WuxiCN
- JinanCN
- TaiyuanCN
- ZhengzhouCN
- ShijiazhuangCN
- KunmingCN
Browse all cities to see the current local time anywhere.
Convert China Standard Time to
Frequently asked questions
- What is China Standard Time (CST)?
- China Standard Time (CST) is UTC+8 year-round — a single clock for the entire country, from the coast to the far west.
- What is CST in UTC?
- CST is UTC+8, the same all year.
- Does China Standard Time observe daylight saving time?
- No. China Standard Time stays at UTC+8 year-round.