National Standard Time is the official time zone in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

defined by an UTC offset of +08:00. This standard is also known as Taipei Time () or Taiwan Time ().

History

The first time zone standard in

was enforced on 1 January 1896, the second year of Taiwan under Japanese rule. The standard was called with time offset of UTC+08:00, based on 120°E longitude. On 1 October 1937, the Western Standard Time zone was abolished and the , with time offset of UTC+09:00, was enforced in the entire country of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the no ...

including

. This time was used until the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. On 21 September 1945, the Governor-General of Taiwan announced that the order issued in 1937 was revoked. Time Memorial Day was observed every 10 June from 1921 to 1941, which led to an increase in the observance of an official time. After the war's end, Taiwan was annexed to the five time zones system of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

and was classified in the "Chungyuan Standard Time" with time offset of UTC+08:00. After the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the

Government of the Republic of China The Government of the Republic of China, is the national government of the Republic of China whose ''de facto'' territory currently consists of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other island groups in the "free area". Governed by the De ...

retreated to Taiwan and lost nearly all the territory in mainland China. Since then, the five time zones system was no longer implemented except the Chungyuan Standard Time in Taiwan. Due to the fact that the term "Chungyuan" ( Zhongyuan) refers to the Central Plain of China, the government gradually phased out the name in favor of "National Standard Time", though some radio channels continued using "Chungyuan", most notably the

Broadcasting Corporation of China The Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC) is a broadcasting company in the Republic of China (also known as Taiwan). It was founded as the Central Broadcasting System in Nanjing in 1928. History The Central Broadcasting System is considere ...

until 2007. Other alternatives include "Taiwan Standard Time" (), "Taipei Time" () and "Formosan Time" ().

Daylight saving time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typical ...

was implemented in

after the Second World War on the summer of 1946–1961, 1974, 1975, 1979. In October 2017, a petition took place to change the offset to UTC+09:00, which was responded by an assessment of potential impact by the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...

Present development

National Standard Time is now managed by the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The time is released according to the caesium atomic clocks aggregated by National Standard Time and Frequency Laboratory under Chunghwa Telecom after consulting the data provided by International Bureau of Weights and Measures. National Standard Time used in

is also the same as mainland China,

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

, Ulaanbaatar

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 millio ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, Malaysia,

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, Western Australia, Brunei and Central

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

IANA time zone database

The

IANA time zone database The tz database is a collaborative compilation of information about the world's time zones, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems. Paul Eggert is its current editor and maintainer, with the organizational back ...

contains one zone for Taiwan, named Asia/Taipei.

Notes

Words in native languages

References

External links

Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection, Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Republic of China
{{DEFAULTSORT:Time In Taiwan Time zones