All the Time now

Bejing Time is developed and approved by the National Time Service Centre, Shaanxi Province, which is almost the geographical centre of China. In contrast to developing nations in the West, China no longer follows summer time. It is 13hrs from New York, 12hrs from Toronto and 2hrs from Melbourne.

If Beijing is at 12:00 midday, the default time in other major metropolitan areas is as follows:

All-year summer time? Well, Florida says yes, but it's not that easy.

Only a few tradition are worse aligned than the half-yearly change between normal and summer time. Often these symptoms are requests to completely abolish summer time. However, Florida wants to move in the other direction: permanently summer time. Flanders does not have the power to introduce summer time all year round.

German governments control the country's time zone and the starting and ending date of summer time. States may choose to liberate themselves from summertime - Arizona and Hawaii do - but nothing in Federal Act allows them to liberate themselves from default time. In view of this obstacle, it is perhaps not strange that other states have been discussing making summer time the constant rule of their country, but nobody has made it.

The summer time stay could be particularly advantageous in New England, which as the most easterly part of a vast time band tolerates very early wintersun declines. Part of Maine, for example between Thanksgiving and Christmas, is sunset before 4 pm - more than an hours before Detroit, at the other end of the east time axis.

Time zone changes could also cause costs, especially in a Northeast zone where tens of thousands of people travel across national borders. However, in Tuesday's interview with newspaper representatives, they said they believe that year-round summer time would enhance the business community, enhance security and enhance psychological wellbeing.