Time in Shanghai

Long before Beijing time existed, Shanghai set clocks for ships. The Jesuit Xujiahui (Zikawei) Observatory, founded in 1872, supplied the time, and from 1884 a time ball on the Bund dropped at noon so captains in the Huangpu River could check their chronometers. The Gutzlaff Signal Tower that later carried the ball still stands at the south end of the Bund.

In the Republican era Shanghai lay in the Chungyuan, or central plain, zone at UTC+8, so the switch to a single national time after 1949 did not change its clocks. The city sits at 121.5° east, just east of the 120° meridian, which makes Shanghai one of the few big Chinese cities where solar noon falls slightly before 12:00 for much of the year.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange trades from 9:30 to 11:30 AM and 1:00 to 3:00 PM on weekdays, a short session that ends before European markets open. New York is 12 hours behind during American daylight time and 13 hours in winter, while Los Angeles is 15 or 16 hours behind. For West Coast partners the usual window is 8:00 to 10:00 AM in Shanghai, which is 5:00 to 7:00 PM the previous day in California during PDT. The China to Pacific time table lists every hour.

London is seven hours behind during British Summer Time and eight in winter, so the Shanghai afternoon meets the London morning.

At 31.2° north, Shanghai's longest days in June have sunrise near 4:50 AM and sunset around 7:00 PM, about 14 hours 10 minutes of daylight. In December the sun rises around 6:45 AM and sets near 4:55 PM, a day of roughly 10 hours. Early summer sunrises are a direct result of using UTC+8 without daylight saving.