On Sun, Jan 1, 2017 at 6:54 PM, Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:

Currently the commentary for Asia/Urumqi says that it covers "Xinjiang time, used by many in western China". Some people in western China use +06, some use +08 (Asia/Shanghai in our database), and the geographical boundary between the two sets of uses is indistinct.

My understanding, from speaking to people who have stayed in the region, is that the distinction is highly ethnic and linguistic (Han/non-Han). People are aware of both time zones, and choose either +0800 or not if they are speaking Mandarin, or not. Hotel receptionists will, when speaking to foreign guests, explicitly specify timezone, as will local business contacts. There is no real geographical line here.

May I refer you to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_%26_the_City ?

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Sanjeev Gupta
+65 98551208 http://www.linkedin.com/in/ghane