As "Little" as the Time Zone 只允許一個時區的國度

Today I wrote a report, in which some time slots were included.

今天我寫了一篇英文報導，裏面提到一些時間。

My editor asked me, "China time? Beijing time?"

西人編輯問我:「這是中國時間? 還是北京時間?」

I told him that China only has one time zone, which is the Beijing time. He said, "Oh, I didn't know it."

我告訴他，中國只使用北京時間，沒有其他時間。 他說：「哦， 我不知道哎。」

Maybe he had thought that in a country the size of China, one would expect to find several time zones, just like the situation in the U.S.

我猜，他想當然地認爲，中國版圖那麼大，肯定跟美國一樣，有好幾個時區吧。

I told him, "In China, everything is centered around Beijing, just as the Party is the 'core' of everything. No other time zones are allowed other than the Beijing time."

我說：在中國，一切都是以北京以中心的，就像共產黨是一切的核心一樣，所以其他地方是不允許使用自己的時區的。

Is time zone a small thing? Or a big thing? It all depends. In China, it seems a big thing.

編輯沒再說話，也許他在暗自想：啊，看來我對中國的了解還是差得遠哪！