The time in China follows a single standard time offset of UTC+08:00, where Beijing is located, even though the country spans five geographical time zones. It is the largest sovereign nation in the world that officially observes only one time zone.
The nationwide standardized time is named Beijing Time (BJT; Chinese: 北京时间) domestically and China Standard Time (CST) internationally. Daylight saving time has not been observed since 1991.
The Wakhjir Pass, also spelled Vakhjir Pass, is a mountain pass on the Afghanistan–China border, between the Hindu Kush and Pamir Mountains at the eastern end of the Wakhan Corridor. It is the only potentially navigable pass between Afghanistan and China in the modern era. It links the Wakhan District of Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan with the Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County in Xinjiang, China, at an altitude of 4,923 m (16,152 ft). As of 2025, the pass has no official border crossing point. With a difference of 3.5 hours, the Afghanistan–China border has the sharpest official change of clocks of any international frontier (UTC+04:30 in Afghanistan to UTC+08:00, in China). China refers to the pass as South Wakhjir Pass (Chinese: 南瓦根基达坂), as there is a northern pass on the Chinese side.