12pm in London is 7pm in Shanghai

Shanghai is 7 hours ahead of London. London runs on Europe/London (UTC+1); Shanghai runs on Asia/Shanghai (UTC+8). The difference is measured right now; it can shift by one hour during daylight-saving-time transitions.

London observes daylight saving time — shifting between GMT (UTC+0) and BST (UTC+1) — while Shanghai stays on CST (UTC+8) year-round. The difference is 8 hours in London’s winter and 7 hours in London’s summer. Transitions happen in late March and late October for most Northern-Hemisphere DST zones, and late September/early April for Southern-Hemisphere ones — check the current date against the city’s DST schedule before anchoring a meeting at the edge of those windows.

Standard 9-to-5 business hours in London and Shanghai overlap for roughly 1 hour a day. That window lands at 09:00–10:00 in London and 16:00–17:00 in Shanghai. Teams with real-time coordination needs anchor cross-city calls inside it: long enough to cover handovers, short enough that it forces crisp agendas. Outside that window, async is the default — shared docs, recorded updates, and scheduled follow-ups rather than live meetings.

When planning recurring meetings across London and Shanghai, pin them to one city’s local time rather than UTC or the other city’s clock. That way, the meeting time stays stable for the person anchoring the schedule, and the other side absorbs the one-hour drift during DST transitions. The alternative — a meeting pinned to the non-DST city — means the DST city sees the meeting time “move” twice a year, which is how recurring calendar invites end up at 7am on someone’s calendar in October.