New York to Shanghai: time difference and meeting times
Everything you need to schedule between New York 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 00:00–01:00 UTC, 10:00–13:00 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 | New York | Status | Shanghai | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 20:00 prev day | Evening | 08:00 | Early morning |
| 01:00 | 21:00 prev day | Late night | 09:00 | Working hours |
| 02:00 | 22:00 prev day | Late night | 10:00 | Working hours |
| 03:00 | 23:00 prev day | Late night | 11:00 | Working hours |
| 04:00 | 00:00 | Asleep | 12:00 | Working hours |
| 05:00 | 01:00 | Asleep | 13:00 | Working hours |
| 06:00 | 02:00 | Asleep | 14:00 | Working hours |
| 07:00 | 03:00 | Asleep | 15:00 | Working hours |
| 08:00 | 04:00 | Asleep | 16:00 | Working hours |
| 09:00 | 05:00 | Asleep | 17:00 | Working hours |
| 10:00 | 06:00 | Early morning | 18:00 | Evening |
| 11:00 | 07:00 | Early morning | 19:00 | Evening |
| 12:00 | 08:00 | Early morning | 20:00 | Evening |
| 13:00 | 09:00 | Working hours | 21:00 | Late night |
| 14:00 | 10:00 | Working hours | 22:00 | Late night |
| 15:00 | 11:00 | Working hours | 23:00 | Late night |
| 16:00 | 12:00 | Working hours | 00:00 next day | Asleep |
| 17:00 | 13:00 | Working hours | 01:00 next day | Asleep |
| 18:00 | 14:00 | Working hours | 02:00 next day | Asleep |
| 19:00 | 15:00 | Working hours | 03:00 next day | Asleep |
| 20:00 | 16:00 | Working hours | 04:00 next day | Asleep |
| 21:00 | 17:00 | Working hours | 05:00 next day | Asleep |
| 22:00 | 18:00 | Evening | 06:00 next day | Early morning |
| 23:00 | 19:00 | Evening | 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 New York | 21:00 in Shanghai |
| 12:00 in New York | 00:00 next day in Shanghai |
| 15:00 in New York | 03:00 next day in Shanghai |
| 17:00 in New York | 05:00 next day in Shanghai |
Daylight saving
New York next moves its clocks back on 1 November 2026, to UTC−5. Shanghai does not observe daylight saving — this offset is fixed all year.
Only one side changes its clocks
New York 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 New York side. A recurring meeting fixed to local time in Shanghai will appear to move by an hour in New York, 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 New York
New York is the reference clock for North American business scheduling — when a US company says "9am ET" without qualification, this is the zone they mean. It observes daylight saving from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, which is three weeks longer than the European season and the source of the annual transatlantic confusion. The working day starts early by European standards and calls before 9am local are common.
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 New York and Shanghai in the grid
Related time differences
Intl API and were last generated on 27 August 2026. See how we calculate these figures.