China uses only one time zone for the entire country even though it is wide enough to have five.

China covers about 3.7 million square miles and stretches 3,100 miles from east to west. Geographically, the sun hits different parts of the country at very different times. Most countries this size use multiple time zones to keep the clock aligned with the sun.In 1949, the government changed the rules to make the whole country follow UTC+8. This is the time in the capital city, Beijing. Before this change, China used five different time zones to match its geography.This single time zone creates strange situations at the borders. If you cross the border from China into Afghanistan, the time changes by 3.5 hours instantly. This is the largest time jump at any land border in the world.In western cities like Kashgar, the sun is highest in the sky at 3:00 PM instead of noon. Many people there use an unofficial local time to make their daily schedules easier. They often start work and school two hours later than people in Beijing to wait for daylight.