WILD changes?

[Bob DeMattia]

>
> How many miles across is China? There must be some 10:00AM local sunrises
> in winter and 11:00PM local time sunsets in summer in Northwestern China....
>
> -Paul Hopfgarten Concord NH
>
>
About 3000 miles, but the western half of the country, except for some small
pockets, is lightly populated.
Of course even with time zones, Anchorage, AK (pop. ~300,000) has sunrises
at 4:30 am and sunsets
at 11:45 pm in June, and 10:45 am / 3:45 pm in December.  London england
sees sunsets as early as
3:51 pm in December.

If China positioned the time for the middle of the populated half of the
country, the times would be
quite reasonable for most residents.

-Bob