Shenzhen Time Now

What this page shows

So you want to know what time it is in Shenzhen right now. Maybe you have a call with someone in southern China, a flight to catch, a supplier to reach, or someone to catch before their evening is over. That is what the clock at the top of this page is for. It shows the current time in Shenzhen and ticks forward every second, so there is nothing for you to work out by hand.

Wherever in the world you are reading this from, the clock tracks Shenzhen and keeps itself right on its own. And Shenzhen time is simple, because it never changes through the year, as the next section explains.

Shenzhen does not change its clocks

Here is the part worth knowing about Shenzhen time, and it makes things easy. China does not use daylight saving. There is no spring forward and no fall back, so Shenzhen stays on the same clock all year round, China Standard Time, eight hours ahead of UTC.

China tried daylight saving for a few years in the late 1980s, but it was dropped in the early 1990s and has never returned. So there are no change dates to track here. Whenever you look, Shenzhen is at UTC plus 8, and the clock above simply shows that time.

What time zone Shenzhen is in

Shenzhen runs on China Standard Time, eight hours ahead of UTC, the single clock used across all of mainland China, often called Beijing time. Sitting in the south of the country, Shenzhen keeps the same hour as the capital far to the north.

What makes Shenzhen's clock convenient is its neighbour. The city sits right on the border with Hong Kong, and Hong Kong is also on UTC plus 8. So despite the border between them, the two sides read exactly the same time, which keeps the busy flow of people, goods, and business across that line free of any time gap. For a manufacturing and technology hub so tightly linked to Hong Kong, that shared clock is a quiet convenience.

Time difference from Shenzhen to other cities

Shenzhen never changes its clocks, so the gap to other fixed-offset places stays the same all year. The places that do use daylight saving, like London and New York, shift by an hour against Shenzhen between their winter and summer. Here is the quick reference, assuming it is 12 noon in Shenzhen.

A few quick examples

Let us run a few, so you can see how this works.

Say it is 12 noon in Shenzhen. Hong Kong reads the same, 12 noon, since it shares the offset, and so does Beijing. Tokyo and Seoul are an hour ahead at 1 in the afternoon, while Mumbai is two and a half hours behind at 9:30 in the morning.

Now the long hauls west. In the winter, London is eight hours behind Shenzhen, so 12 noon here is 4 in the morning in London, and New York, thirteen hours behind, is still at 11 the previous evening. Midday in Shenzhen lands in the small hours across Europe and the Americas.

Because those places use daylight saving and China does not, the gap shifts by an hour in their summer. London moves to seven hours behind and New York to twelve. So for a call that has to land just right, check the live clock rather than the rule of thumb.

A couple of things about Shenzhen time

Shenzhen sits well to the south, at about 23 degrees north, just inside the subtropics, so the length of the day stays fairly even through the year. Around midsummer there are roughly thirteen and a half hours between sunrise and sunset, and around midwinter still close to eleven, a gentle swing next to the cities of the north.

On the clock-against-sun question, Shenzhen runs a little behind the sun. China Standard Time fits the line of longitude through the east of the country, and Shenzhen sits some way west of it, so the sun reaches its highest a little after 12 noon by the clock, at around half past twelve in the middle of the year. It is a modest lean, and a steady one, since the clock never shifts.

Other places on the same time

A good few places keep the same time as Shenzhen on UTC plus 8. Here are some to jump to:

• Hong Kong time now, just across the border
• China time now, the country as a whole
• Singapore time now, also UTC plus 8

And if it is the global reference Shenzhen is measured from that you are after, see UTC Time Now.

Questions people ask

What time is it in Shenzhen right now?

The clock near the top of this page is the answer, and it updates every second. China does not use daylight saving, so Shenzhen stays on the same time all year, and the time shown is always correct.

Does Shenzhen change its clocks for daylight saving?

No. China tried it for a few years in the late 1980s and dropped it in the early 1990s. Shenzhen has stayed on China Standard Time, UTC plus 8, ever since, with no seasonal change.

Is Shenzhen the same time as Hong Kong?

Yes. Both are on UTC plus 8 and neither uses daylight saving, so Shenzhen and Hong Kong always read the same clock, despite the border between them.

What time zone is Shenzhen in?

China Standard Time, eight hours ahead of UTC, held all year. It is the single clock used across the whole of mainland China, often called Beijing time.

What is the time difference between Shenzhen and New York?

New York is normally thirteen hours behind Shenzhen, or twelve when New York is on summer time. The gap shifts because New York uses daylight saving and China does not.

What is the IANA name for Shenzhen time?

It is Asia/Shanghai in the IANA time zone database, the time data your phone and your computer use. That single identifier covers the whole of mainland China, and it is what drives the live clock on this page.

References

1. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Time Zone Database (the tz database), home of the Asia/Shanghai identifier used across China. https://www.iana.org/time-zones
2. National Time Service Center (NTSC), Chinese Academy of Sciences, which generates and keeps China's standard time. https://www.ntsc.ac.cn
3. Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), Time Department, which maintains Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the reference China Standard Time is measured from. https://www.bipm.org/en/work-programme/time