Current Time in Beijing

About time in Beijing

Beijing runs on China Standard Time, a steady UTC+8 offset that never shifts because the country has not used daylight saving since the early 1990s. Although China spans roughly five geographic time zones, the entire nation officially keeps this single offset, so a clock in Beijing matches one in Shanghai or Urumqi on paper. Here the abbreviation CST means China Standard Time, not the US Central zone that shares the same letters. The IANA database tracks this zone under the identifier Asia/Shanghai rather than a Beijing-specific name.

Beijing does not make seasonal clock changes under its current rules. Its offset is UTC+8 (no DST). The live clock above reads Beijing's local time directly from the IANA time zone database in your browser, using the rules installed on your device. Keep your browser updated when regional rules change. To plan a call or convert a specific moment, use the timezone converter or meeting planner linked below.

Daylight in Beijing through 2026

Beijing sits at about 39.9°N, 116.4°E. The longest day of 2026 is June 17, with 15h 00m between sunrise and sunset. The shortest is December 19, with 9h 20m, a difference of 5 h 40 min. At this mid-latitude, winter evenings are dark early and summer evenings stay light well after a normal working day.

The earliest sunrise of the year comes around June 9 (04:45) and the latest sunset around June 21 (19:46). These are not exactly on the solstice because the sun’s position runs slightly ahead of or behind clock time during the year.

Solar noon, when the sun is highest, falls at about 12:21 local time in late March, 12:15 in late June and 12:12 in late December. In standard time the sun is highest at about 12:14 on average, close to 12:00, so the clock and the sun are well aligned in Beijing.

Local clock times, including daylight saving where it applies. Calculated with the standard sunrise equation for the city centre; terrain and tall buildings can delay the visible sunrise.

Clock changes in Beijing (2026–2027)

Beijing keeps the same offset all year. No clock changes are scheduled in 2026 or 2027 under the time-zone rules used for this page. Its gap to cities that do observe daylight saving still changes when they move their clocks: in January Beijing is 8 hours ahead of London and 13 hours ahead of New York.

Dates come from the IANA time zone database as bundled with this site’s build. Governments occasionally change rules at short notice; see our methodology.