Los Angeles to Shanghai: time difference and meeting times
Everything you need to schedule between Los Angeles and Shanghai — the current offset, both cities' daylight saving dates, and the hour-by-hour overlap of their working days.
Partial overlap only. There is no hour when both cities are inside core working hours. Both sides are awake and available at 00:00–04:00 UTC, 22:00–00:00 UTC, but at least one of them is in the early morning or the evening. That is the realistic window for this pair.
Hour by hour
| UTC | Los Angeles | Status | Shanghai | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 17:00 prev day | Working hours | 08:00 | Early morning |
| 01:00 | 18:00 prev day | Evening | 09:00 | Working hours |
| 02:00 | 19:00 prev day | Evening | 10:00 | Working hours |
| 03:00 | 20:00 prev day | Evening | 11:00 | Working hours |
| 04:00 | 21:00 prev day | Late night | 12:00 | Working hours |
| 05:00 | 22:00 prev day | Late night | 13:00 | Working hours |
| 06:00 | 23:00 prev day | Late night | 14:00 | Working hours |
| 07:00 | 00:00 | Asleep | 15:00 | Working hours |
| 08:00 | 01:00 | Asleep | 16:00 | Working hours |
| 09:00 | 02:00 | Asleep | 17:00 | Working hours |
| 10:00 | 03:00 | Asleep | 18:00 | Evening |
| 11:00 | 04:00 | Asleep | 19:00 | Evening |
| 12:00 | 05:00 | Asleep | 20:00 | Evening |
| 13:00 | 06:00 | Early morning | 21:00 | Late night |
| 14:00 | 07:00 | Early morning | 22:00 | Late night |
| 15:00 | 08:00 | Early morning | 23:00 | Late night |
| 16:00 | 09:00 | Working hours | 00:00 next day | Asleep |
| 17:00 | 10:00 | Working hours | 01:00 next day | Asleep |
| 18:00 | 11:00 | Working hours | 02:00 next day | Asleep |
| 19:00 | 12:00 | Working hours | 03:00 next day | Asleep |
| 20:00 | 13:00 | Working hours | 04:00 next day | Asleep |
| 21:00 | 14:00 | Working hours | 05:00 next day | Asleep |
| 22:00 | 15:00 | Working hours | 06:00 next day | Early morning |
| 23:00 | 16:00 | Working hours | 07:00 next day | Early morning |
Green rows are hours when both cities are inside core working hours (09:00–17:59 local). Amber rows are hours when both are awake but at least one is in the early morning or evening. Times shown are for 27 August 2026; the pattern shifts when either city changes its clocks.
Quick conversions
| When it is… | …it is |
|---|---|
| 09:00 in Los Angeles | 00:00 next day in Shanghai |
| 12:00 in Los Angeles | 03:00 next day in Shanghai |
| 15:00 in Los Angeles | 06:00 next day in Shanghai |
| 17:00 in Los Angeles | 08:00 in Shanghai |
Daylight saving
Los Angeles next moves its clocks back on 1 November 2026, to UTC−8. Shanghai does not observe daylight saving — this offset is fixed all year.
Only one side changes its clocks
Los Angeles observes daylight saving and Shanghai does not. The difference between these two cities is therefore not constant — it changes twice a year, entirely because of the Los Angeles side. A recurring meeting fixed to local time in Shanghai will appear to move by an hour in Los Angeles, and vice versa.
These cities are usually on different calendar days
The gap here is large enough that for much of the day the two cities are not merely at different times but on different dates. When you agree a meeting, confirm the date in both cities explicitly — "Tuesday at 9" means two different moments depending on whose Tuesday you mean.
Scheduling across this corridor
East Asia and North America sit on opposite sides of the working day, and for most of these pairs the calendar date differs as well. A meeting that is late afternoon in the US lands the following morning in Tokyo or Seoul, which is usually the least painful arrangement: the Asian side takes it at the start of their day rather than the end of yours. Because Japan, Korea and China do not observe daylight saving, the entire seasonal shift comes from the North American side, so a slot fixed in local US time will drift by an hour twice a year while the Asian local time stays put.
About Los Angeles
Los Angeles is three hours behind the US East Coast, which makes it the awkward end of any American company's internal scheduling: a 9am meeting in New York is 6am here. For anything involving Europe or Asia the West Coast is either very early or very late, with almost nothing in between. It follows the same daylight saving dates as the rest of the mainland United States.
About Shanghai
Shanghai runs on China Standard Time, eight hours ahead of UTC with no daylight saving. The whole of China uses this single zone despite the country spanning roughly five geographic timezones, so the far west of the country runs several hours out of step with the sun. China last observed daylight saving in 1991.
Add more cities
This page covers two cities. If your team spans three or more, open the interactive grid — it shows every city's working hours side by side and highlights the columns where everyone overlaps.
◎ Open Los Angeles and Shanghai in the grid
Related time differences
Intl API and were last generated on 27 August 2026. See how we calculate these figures.