Current time in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Time, kept by the Observatory

Hong Kong uses Hong Kong Time (HKT), eight hours ahead of UTC, all year. The standard has been maintained since the nineteenth century by the Hong Kong Observatory, today with caesium atomic clocks, and the city adopted the eight-hour offset from Greenwich in 1904. Shenzhen, just across the boundary, and the rest of mainland China use the same time, as do Macau, Taipei and Singapore.

The time ball above the harbour

From 1885 the Observatory dropped a large ball down a mast in Tsim Sha Tsui at exactly 13:00 each day. Ships’ officers in Victoria Harbour watched for it to set their chronometers, which they needed to calculate longitude at sea. The service moved to a tower on Signal Hill in 1907 and ended in 1933, when radio time signals had replaced it. The tower still stands in a small park above the waterfront.

Summer time ended in 1979

Hong Kong used summer time in most years from the 1940s to 1976 and once more in 1979, and has not changed its clocks since. Because it is fixed, its distance from Europe and North America shifts with their seasons: London is eight hours behind in winter and seven in summer, New York thirteen or twelve. The stock exchange trades from 09:30 to 12:00 and from 13:00 to 16:00, with a lunch break that few Western markets still keep.

Hong Kong: time zone at a glance

Time zone

Asia/Hong_Kong

UTC offset

UTC+8, all year

Clock changes

None scheduled

Dates reflect the rules in force when this page was last updated. Governments can change them at short notice.

Plan a meeting in Hong Kong

Use the actual meeting date. Seasonal clock changes can alter the time difference.

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