2028 time change dates for China
China does not observe Daylight Saving Time
China trialled Daylight Saving Time from 1986 to 1991 and dropped it. The entire country, spanning five geographic time zones, runs on a single clock at UTC+8.
China stays on CST for the whole year.
Countdown to the next change
Technology and Time Changes in 2028
Phones, computers and anything else that syncs with an internet time server handle the transition on their own. What still catches people out in China is the long tail of devices that don't: car dashboards, ovens and microwaves, wall clocks, older thermostats, and cheap alarm clocks with a DST setting hard-coded to a schedule that has since changed.
For anyone running servers, the transitions are a recurring source of bugs — duplicated or missing local timestamps around the changeover, cron jobs that fire twice or not at all, and stale operating system timezone databases. Storing timestamps in UTC and keeping the tzdata package current avoids almost all of it.
Background
- The energy case for DST is weak by modern standards. A US Department of Energy study in 2008 found savings of about 0.5% of daily electricity use, and other studies have found no saving at all.
- Benjamin Franklin is often credited with inventing DST, but his 1784 essay was satire — he joked that Parisians could save candles by waking earlier. The modern proposal came from New Zealander George Hudson in 1895 and Briton William Willett in 1907.
- The Uniform Time Act of 1966 ended a chaotic period in which US cities set their own clock-change dates, and established a uniform national schedule.
Tips for China
Be extra cautious driving the Monday after the spring time change - accident rates increase.
Check and replace smoke detector batteries when changing clocks - it's a good reminder!
Remember that not all countries change on the same date - check international meeting times carefully.
Consider the time change when scheduling meetings with people in other time zones.
Frequently asked questions
When do the clocks change in China in 2028?
They do not. China does not observe Daylight Saving Time.
Which way do the clocks go?
"Spring forward, fall back" is the usual mnemonic: forward one hour in spring, back one hour in autumn.
Do I have to change anything myself?
Phones, computers and anything that syncs over the internet update on their own. Car clocks, ovens, microwaves and older wall clocks generally do not.
Is Daylight Saving Time being scrapped?
It has been proposed in many places and adopted in few. The European Parliament voted in 2019 to end mandatory clock changes and the change has stalled; in the United States the Sunshine Protection Act has repeatedly passed the Senate without becoming law. Most of the world that changes its clocks is still changing them.