Wake Up Call

The sun in Shanghai rises incredibly early - at the moment it rises about a quarter to 5 in the morning. Since my roommate went back to the States I've been waking up earlier and earlier, then dozing until 7 or 8, whenever I force myself to get out of bed. Part of it is I'm not used to being in the apartment alone, but part of it is the fact that the sun is up and my body clock tends to sync with the sun.

China is on a single time zone, "Beijing Standard Time." I've heard a couple of theories about this: 1)It is a holdover from the days of the emperors and since the emperor was in Beijing that was the official time; 2)Mao insisted that since all people were equal in China, everyone should have the same time.

Like anything, there are pros and cons. You can schedule a meeting with representatives from anywhere in the country and not have to worry about time zone changes. There's also no daylight savings time, so as far as programming computers and clocks it is more straightforward. Train, bus and airplane schedules don't require conversions because "local time" is the same everywhere. But, if you live in Tibet in December the sun won't rise until almost 9am. Talk about going to work in the dark!

I love late summer twilight but since it the sun rises so early it gets dark about 6:30pm. I remember late summer evenings as a kid, softball games ending at 9pm in twilight, long walks for ice cream, sitting on the hill waiting for the fireworks to start at 10pm. It's a different rhythm here.

Question: What do you do when you can't sleep?

Happy Belated Memorial Day to you all! No holiday here, obviously, but this Sunday is Children's Day and a week from Sunday is the dragon boat festival. Then that week my parents come!

Cheers!

G