Morning jog in Urumqi, ChinaTime Zone Problems
Remember: Urumqi (and all of Xinjiang Province) are on the same timezone as Beijing. Even though, Urumqi should be approximately 4 or 5 timezones behind Beijing they are the same. Thank the People's Republic for this divine wisdom!
In practice, this means that when you wake up at 8:00 AM, it is still pitch dark in the streets (time schedules are not adjusted to accomodate for daylight hours). This can feel VERY strange and will wreak havic on your internal clock. Bare this in mind when venturing into western China! I remember feeling as though that I was truly in the middle of nowhere. As my first visit to Central Asia, arriving in Urumqi for the first time in winter 2000 was a very exciting experience.
