I think I understand now your reason for wanting dual time zones now, thanks. I think, though, that Jonathan Hassid has his the nail on the head as far as Xinjiang time is concerned with his access to Guo's article, that there is no single change or date from Xinjiang time to Beijing time. It seems rather that different ministries and different localities switched at different times. This process is continuing with, for example, the Urumqi city busses giving their start and stop times in Urumqi time as late as 2007 but not anymore. There seem to be three general time periods. From '49 to the cultural revolution, when Han Chinese were very much a minority and generally more adoptive to Xinjiang ways, including Xinjiang Time. During the cultural revolution there were different groups claiming to be in charge and I believe it will be quite a mess to unravel if not impossible. Then the 80's there was a return to normalcy which included a return (or at least recognition) of pre-cultural revolution standards. If you still think dual time zone is necessary, perhaps you can choose the most significant dates from Jonathan's report on Guo's article. I don't know... Just thinking out loud. -mld On Oct 13, 2010, at 1:34 AM, Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] wrote:

Although folks in Xinjiang who use +8:00 could use Asia/Shanghai to handle current times, Xinjiang and Shanghai had different offsets before 1980. Separate zones are needed for correct handling of pre-1980 time stamps.

--ado