In the late Qing Dynasty, the exchange between China and foreign countries increased gradually. The different ways of dating brought a lot of inconvenience to international exchange. After the founding of the Republic of China, the Gregorian calendar was adopted immediately. The use of the solar calendar indicates that China was beginning to connect with the world.

In 1902, China began to implement the standard time system. When the customs formulated the coast time of the East China Sea, the time of 120 ° E was taken as the standard.

On March 9, 1939, the Ministry of the interior of the Republic of China held a meeting on standard time, which divided the country into five time zones: Kunlun Time Zone (western Xinjiang and part of Tibet), Xinzang Time Zone (Xinjiang and Tibet), Longshu Time Zone (Central China), Central Plains Standard Time Zone (China Coast), Changbai Time Zone (Northeast China). Peiping is located in Zone 8 of the world standard time zone, which belongs to the Central Plains Standard Time Zone. The meeting identified the name and scope of the time zone and created the standard time and time service system in modern China.

On January 31, 1949, after the peaceful liberation of Peiping, the title of "Central Plains Standard Time" was no longer appropriate. The people's Republic of China needs a new name with bright colors and easy to remember, which paves the way for the birth of "Beijing time".

On September 27, 1949, the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference held its first meeting and adopted four resolutions: the capital, the calendar, the national anthem and flag. The meeting also decided that the capital of the People's Republic of China is Beijing, formerly known as Peiping and adopted the solar calendar.

On September 28, 1949, Peiping Xinhua Radio Station was renamed Beijing Xinhua Radio Station (changed its name to China National Radio on December 5, 1949), which was first broadcasted on "Beijing Time". Subsequently, local radio stations successively announced that "Beijing Time" was adopted.

On October 7, 1949, Xi'an People Radio Station released a broadcast message on the first edition of the "People's Daily", emphasizing that the time of this station is based on Beijing time.

On November 2, 1949, Xi'an Government informed that " We has solicited opinions from all sides, in order to be consistent with the time zone of the main areas in China, from the 3rd of this month, we will stop using the time of Longshu time and switch to Beijing time." Chengdu was liberated on December 27, 1949, and announced the use of Beijing time within ten days. In early 1950, within a few short months after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Beijing time was adopted in all almost parts of the country except Xinjiang and Tibet.

Since its birth, Beijing time has not only been a call sign of a radio station, but also a system. This system not only has the regulations of year, month, day, hour, minute and second, but also has the regulations below the second. Over the years, Beijing time has provided great convenience for the development of China's economy, transportation, science and daily life.