I am new to the list but would like to make a proposal for Xinjiang time. I have looked through previous posts about Xinjiang and would agree with the paradoxical statements that: 1. All of China is on one time zone, (Zhe Su Jun 26, 2006) and 2. Xinjiang has another, governmentally recognized time zone. (Thomas S. Mullaney Feb 12, 2008) Almost all (>99.9%) ethnic Chinese (properly ethnic Han) living in Xinjiang use Chinese Standard Time. Some are aware of Xinjiang time, but have no need of it. All planes, trains, and schools function on what is called "Beijing time". When Han make an appointment in Chinese they implicitly use Beijing time. On the other hand, ethnic Uyghurs, who make up about half the population of Xinjiang, typically use "Xinjiang time" which is two hours behind Beijing time, or UTC +0600. The government of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, (XAUR, or just Xinjiang for short) as well as local governments such as the Urumqi city government use both times in publications, referring to what is popularly called Xinjiang time as "Urumqi time". When Uyghurs make an appointment in the Uyghur language they almost invariably use Xinjiang time. (Their ethnic Han compatriots would typically have no clue of its widespread use, however, because so extremely few of them are fluent in Uyghur, comparable to the number of Anglo-Americans fluent in Navajo.) Because there presently is no time localization for a large Uyghur population who set their watches to Xinjiang time, I propose that the last line of the "Asia/Urumqi" and "Asia/Kashgar" entries be changed so that the entries read: Zone Asia/Urumqi 5:50:20 - LMT 1928 # or Urumchi 6:00 - URUT 1980 May # Urumqi Time 6:00 - XJT #Xinjiang Time and Zone Asia/Kashgar 5:03:56 - LMT 1928 # or Kashi or Kaxgar 5:30 - KAST 1940 # Kashgar Time 5:00 - KAST 1980 May 6:00 - XJT #Xinjiang Time (I did not include the PRC rule. As with the rest of China there was a brief interval ending in 1990 or 1991 when summer time was in use. The confusion was severe, with the province not having dual times but four times in use at the same time. Some areas remained on standard Xinjiang time or Beijing time and others moving their clocks ahead.) This proposed correction would reflect usage for at least the last thirty years and would be a great help to Uyghurs who are becoming increasingly technologically sophisticated. (They routinely use Uyghur localized operating systems and localized cell phones.) XJT would also be preferable to URUT as this reflects standard usage as well as correctly reflects the time zone for an area (in this case, the autonomous region) and not just a city. I don't believe that this would cause the slightest difficulty for ethnic Han population, as they would typically set their phones and computer time to Beijing. Some may only be a bit surprised that a separate Xinjiang exists. I, myself, speak from being present in Xinjiang off and on since the 80's; from my own observations as well as from asking informants who came from outlying areas. Unfortunately, Internet documentation of the actual law is presently hard to get. Immediately after the events of earlier this summer, Internet in Xinjiang was cut and is still out, so many Xinjiang sites are unavailable. Below, though, is an example of an official website using of Urumqi time. The first few lines of the Google translation of http://www.fjysgl.gov.cn/show.aspx?id=2379&cid=39 (retrieved 2009-10-13)

Urumqi fire seven people are missing the alleged losses of at least 500 million yuan

(Reporter Dong Liu) the day before 20:20 or so (Urumqi Time 18:20), Urumqi City Department of International Plaza Luther Qiantang River burst fire. As of yesterday, 18:30, Urumqi City Fire officers and men have worked continuously for 22 hours, ....

-Lude (Luther) Ma PS This request was actually prompted by tzdata being updated for summer time in Dhaka. Previously Asia/Dhaka was a good work-around for for me and others not having a proper Xinjiang time. The update has caused me to ask if there might be a better solution.