China can unify its clocks, but it can't conquer the sun. The entire country is in the same time zone (Beijing Time), and for Xinjiang, that's like making California work on Eastern Standard Time. Do you think Californians would put up with that? No way! And neither does Xinjiang.
Businesses don't open until 10 am. Classes start at 9:30 in September and shift to starting at 10 am in October, when our long winter moves in. My lunch break is from 2 - 4 pm, I don't get out of class until after 7 pm, at which point the sun has set enough for a comfortable jog before a fashionably late dinner. My Chinese colleagues go to bed after midnight (very late in terms of clock-face time for Chinese people!). You get the picture.
This rescheduling has been one of the biggest changes for me in moving across the country. Arid climate? Loving it. No ocean? Not missing it. New foods? Bring 'em on. Time of day? My mind is confused! There's a disconnect between the time on my watch and the time indicated by the height of the sun.
I may just ditch the watch and spend a year fine tuning my inner compass and solar-lunar analytical abilities. On second thought, WikiHow's "How to Tell Time Without a Clock warns, "Don't use this method if you can't afford to be late, such as getting to a meeting or an airplane." Okay, well I've still got a cell phone that's on Beijing Time.
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