World Time

World Time

It is fashinable to have a sense of world time. The time difference in different locations of the world is an amazing thing in the world. When I get up in the morning at 8:00 AM, the birds start to sing outside my window. At the same time, people in the west coast, like Seattle, California, are at the last two hours of yesterday’s work. It is 4:00 PM in the afternoon. When I am thinking of my breakfast, they may be thinking about where to go for dinner with their friends. At exactly the same time, most people in London may have fallen asleep, while some may still away, hanging out in bars or working in offices. It all happens at the same time. It inspired me to create a world clock and put it onto my website. It is based on the work of Shanghai-ed.com‘s Shanghai clock.

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Shanghai Time. Time Zone: GMT +8.

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Seattle Time. Time Zone: GMT -8

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London Time. Time Zone GMT +0

Best Time to Call Me?

I am in GMT +8 time zone. It is OK to call me from 8:00 AM to 11:00 PM. That is a 15-hour time range. However, people in other part of the world cannot leverage all these 15 hours.

I have most friends and business partners in the west coast of America. Keeping in mind that I wake up at 4:00 PM Pacific Time helps people to find the right time to call me. The rule of thumb is, if you are after work, and you do not go to bed, neither do I. Sometimes, when my brother in Portland call me at mid-night Pacific Time, I am still 4:00 in the afternoon. So no matter how late it is, it is not late for me. This 8 hour time range is the best time for both side of the Pacific to make phone call, start MSN chat or exchange quick emails. If my friends prefer to call Shanghai early in their morning, start as early as possible because when people go to work in Seattle (9:00 AM?), it is already 1:00 AM in Shanghai. So if you want to call early in your time, get up as early as possible, before I fall asleep.

I don’t have as many chances of conferene call with people in Europe as Wendy does. They often have conference calls connecting Seattle, Shanghai and Europe. They picked the time to be either 9:00 AM, or 0:00 AM Shanghai time so the time is good for any of the three locations. If it is 0:00 AM, it is 8:00 AM in Seattle or 16:00 in British, (or 17:00 in German). It is the earlist possible time for people in Seattle – they already get to office one hour earlier and it is the latest possible time for people in Shanghai, since Wendy already delayed the time to go to bed by one hour. It is the same situation for 9:00 AM conference call.

To learn the time difference and to talk with someone with different mood is very interesting. I don’t like to talk with people and discuss tough business stuff in the morning, when I just arrived office, but it seems to be a good time for my counterparts in west coast. So, I would say, if it is for business, 9:30 AM Shanghai time, or 17:30Pacific Time is good for me.

It seems my friends in Seattle just wrap up everything and hand it over to me when they go home. When I finish my work at 17:30, I can hand over the work to people in London, and so do people in London. It is the concept of Follow the Sun, isn’t it?

7 thoughts on “World Time

  1. Your site as usually all the chinese ones has too far too long time to upload. Especially pictures never upload.

  2. Just a quick note about world times. In the UK we have what is known as ‘British Summer Time’ which starts at some time in March and end some time in October (it is different every year). This is GMT +1. So on your clock it as I am looking at it now it says 10:09 am. It is actually 11:09 am in the UK. This year it ends on 30th October 2005, so we all turn our watches back one hour on that date to bring us in line with GMT.

    I know it sounds strange, and it is. It’s something to do with getting the most daylight possible but I’m not exactly sure.

  3. Hello Mr. Wang, people of KQED radio gives me your contact. Well, i am a photographer who lives in madrid, Spain and i work for several magazines here. I would like to find want to meet local chinese people in Shangai in the business area, ( sucesfull, big, and specially YOUNG people).

    I am planing to go in february to Shangai.

    I have some ideas to do for the magazines where i work, one of this ideas is make an article about business young people (men and women) who are making very nice stuffs there. You are perfect for my article if you donĀ“t mind to appear. can you help me with this?

    Thanks for your time

    Luis Cobelo

  4. Current time shown is wrong.What is shown is true only in winter.Why don’t you adjust as per what the world follows.

  5. Hi Mr JianShou, i will be spending some days in Shanghai mid november and arriving at past midnight of Nov 13 (early AM of Nov 14) i wanted to stay at JinJiang tho havent received confirmation of my reservation yet til now.. is it safe to walk to hotel as you recommended or better just get the cab (at that time)?

    i hope your rating of JinJIang Inn remains the same todate? thanks very much

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