Current time in Shanghai, China
The current local time in Shanghai is shown below. Shanghai observes CST.
Daylight saving time
Shanghai does not observe daylight saving time. The local offset is fixed year-round.
Sunrise & sunset today
Timezone facts
- Timezone
- Asia/Shanghai
- Standard abbreviation
- CST
- Observes daylight saving
- No
- Country
- 🇨🇳 China
- Business hours
- 09:00 – 18:00 local
Shanghai in context
Shanghai sits on the Yangtze River Delta on China's east coast, the country's most populous city and largest port. The municipality holds around 27 million residents within an administrative area that combines the historic centre on the Huangpu River, the modern Pudong financial district on its east bank, and a substantial surrounding hinterland. Shanghai is one of four Chinese cities directly administered by the central government, with a status broadly equivalent to a province and population larger than most European countries.
Timezone history of Shanghai
Shanghai sits at 121 degrees east, close enough to the meridian for UTC+8 that the city's civil time matches local solar noon within minutes; this is unusual in China, where the single national timezone leaves western cities like Kashgar two hours adrift. During the foreign concession era between 1842 and the Second World War, the international settlement and the French concession kept their own clocks separately, and railway and maritime timekeeping operated on a confusing mix of solar, Shanghai, and Greenwich-based references before the Communist government standardised the country in 1949.
Working hours in Shanghai
Shanghai's white-collar working hours have historically been long, with the controversial 996 pattern of 09:00 to 21:00 six days a week still informally common in the city's technology sector despite labour-law rulings against it. More conventional offices run 09:00 to 18:00 with a 90-minute lunch break, often a sit-down meal in a building canteen. The annual Chinese New Year shutdown in late January or February is the most significant business closure, with much of the city effectively offline for a week as workers return to home provinces.