National Standard Time is the official time zone in Taiwan defined by an UTC offset of +08:00. This standard is also known as Taipei Time (), Taiwan Time () or Taiwan Standard Time (TST).
History
+ History of time standard in Taiwan Time offset Name Date English Official Start EndUTC+08:00Western Standard Time1896-01-011937-09-30UTC+09:00Central Standard Time1937-10-011945-09-20 UTC+08:00Western Standard Time1945-09-211945-10-25Chungyuan Standard Time1945-10-25Early 2000sNational Standard Time2000s
The first time zone standard in Taiwan 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 including Taiwan. This time was used until the end of the Second World War. On 21 September 1945, the Governor-General of Taiwan announced that the order issued in 1937 was revoked.:wikisource:ja:臺灣ノ標準時ニ關スル件 (昭和二十年台湾総督府告示第三百八十六号) Time Memorial Day was observed every 10 June from 1921 to 1941, which led to an increase in the observance of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. It was classified in the "Chungyuan Standard Time" with a time offset of UTC+08:00. After the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the Government of the Republic of China retreated to Taiwan and lost nearly all the territory in mainland China. Since then, the five time zones system was no longer implemented except for the Chungyuan Standard Time in Taiwan. Because the term "Chungyuan" (Zhongyuan) refers to the Central Plain of China, the government gradually phased out the name in favor of "National Standard Time". However, some radio channels continued using "Chungyuan", most notably the Broadcasting Corporation of China until 2007. Other alternatives include "Taiwan Standard Time" () and "Taipei Time" ().
Daylight saving time was implemented in Taiwan after the Second World War on the summer of 1946–1961, 1974, 1975, 1979.Yu-Cheng Chuang (Jul 11, 2014) [台灣日光節約時間之考據 https://blog.yorkxin.org/posts/2014/07/11/dst-in-taiwan-study/]
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.
Standard time in Taiwan since 1896 Year Date Change of time Notes UTC offset after the Change1896January 1 — Introduction of Western Standard Time8:001937October 1 +1:00 Introduction of Central Standard Time9:001945September 21 -1:00 Introduction of Western Standard Time8:001945October 25 0:00 Introduction of Chungyuan Standard Time8:001946May 15 +1:00 Start of summer time9:00October 1 -1:00 End of summer time8:001947April 15 +1:00 Start of summer time9:00November 1 -1:00 End of summer time8:001948–1951May 1 +1:00 Start of summer time9:00October 1 -1:00 End of summer time8:001952March 1 +1:00 Start of daylight saving time9:00November 1 -1:00 End of daylight saving time8:001953, 1954April 1 +1:00 Start of daylight saving time9:00November 1 -1:00 End of daylight saving time8:001955–1959April 1 +1:00 Start of daylight saving time9:00October 1 -1:00 End of daylight saving time8:001960, 1961June 1 +1:00 Start of summer time9:00October 1 -1:00 End of summer time8:001974, 1975April 1 +1:00 Start of daylight saving time9:00October 1 -1:00 End of daylight saving time8:001979July 1 +1:00 Start of daylight saving time9:00October 1 -1:00 End of daylight saving time8:00Early 2000s 0:00 Introduction of National Standard Time8:00
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 Taiwan is also the same as China, Hong Kong, Macau, Ulaanbaatar Mongolia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Western Australia, Brunei and Central Indonesia.
IANA time zone database The IANA time zone database contains one zone for Taiwan, named Asia/Taipei. c.c.*coordinates*TZ*comments*Standard timeSummer time
Notes
Words in native languages
References
External links Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection, Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Republic of China National Standard Time and Frequency Laboratory