Los Angeles to Shanghai: time difference and best times to meet
Shanghai is 15 hours ahead of Los Angeles. There is no overlap between a normal working day in each city, so one side has to take the call outside working hours.
America/Los_Angeles
Asia/Shanghai
Hour-by-hour overlap
Each row is one hour of the Los Angeles day and the matching hour in Shanghai. Adjust the working hours to match how your team actually works.
| Los Angeles | Shanghai | Suitable? |
|---|---|---|
| 12am | 3pm | Working hours in Shanghai only |
| 1am | 4pm | Working hours in Shanghai only |
| 2am | 5pm | Working hours in Shanghai only |
| 9am | 12am | Working hours in Los Angeles only |
| 10am | 1am | Working hours in Los Angeles only |
| 11am | 2am | Working hours in Los Angeles only |
| 12pm | 3am | Working hours in Los Angeles only |
| 1pm | 4am | Working hours in Los Angeles only |
| 2pm | 5am | Working hours in Los Angeles only |
| 3pm | 6am | Working hours in Los Angeles only |
| 4pm | 7am | Working hours in Los Angeles only |
| 5pm | 8am | Working hours in Los Angeles only |
| 6pm | 9am | Working hours in Shanghai only |
| 7pm | 10am | Working hours in Shanghai only |
| 8pm | 11am | Working hours in Shanghai only |
| 9pm | 12pm | Working hours in Shanghai only |
| 10pm | 1pm | Working hours in Shanghai only |
| 11pm | 2pm | Working hours in Shanghai only |
When the gap changes in the next twelve months
- Sunday, November 1, 2026 — Shanghai goes from 15 hours ahead of to 16 hours ahead of Los Angeles.
- Sunday, March 14, 2027 — Shanghai goes from 16 hours ahead of to 15 hours ahead of Los Angeles.
Recurring meetings set as a fixed clock time in one city will move by an hour for the other on these dates.
Public holidays to avoid
Dates where one side is off work while the other is not are the most common cause of no-shows on this route.
- Friday, September 25, 2026 — Mid-Autumn Festival — Shanghai is off, Los Angeles is working.
- Thursday, October 1, 2026 — National Day — Shanghai is off, Los Angeles is working.
- Monday, October 12, 2026 — Indigenous Peoples' Day — Los Angeles is off, Shanghai is working.
- Wednesday, November 11, 2026 — Veterans Day — Los Angeles is off, Shanghai is working.
- Thursday, November 26, 2026 — Thanksgiving Day — Los Angeles is off, Shanghai is working.
- Friday, December 25, 2026 — Christmas Day — Los Angeles is off, Shanghai is working.
Los Angeles and Shanghai have no shared working hours, so a recurring live meeting always costs someone their morning or their evening. Rotating the burden, or moving the update to written form, is usually the better answer.
Sending a booking link avoids the arithmetic entirely: each side picks a time in their own zone and both calendars get the correct local time, including after a daylight-saving change. See how LemCall handles cross-timezone bookings.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the time difference between Los Angeles and Shanghai?
- Shanghai is currently 15 hours ahead of Los Angeles. That changes to 16 hours ahead of on Sunday, November 1, 2026, when one side shifts for daylight saving.
- When is the best time to schedule a meeting between Los Angeles and Shanghai?
- There is no hour where both cities are inside normal working hours, so one side has to take the call early or late.
- How many hours do Los Angeles and Shanghai overlap?
- Zero, on a standard 9–18 working day in each city.
- Does daylight saving change the Los Angeles–Shanghai gap?
- Yes. Over the next twelve months the difference changes 2 times: Sunday, November 1, 2026 (15 hours ahead of becomes 16 hours ahead of); Sunday, March 14, 2027 (16 hours ahead of becomes 15 hours ahead of).
- Are there public holidays that affect Los Angeles–Shanghai meetings?
- Yes. The next is Friday, September 25, 2026 — a public holiday where Shanghai is, but a normal working day in Los Angeles.
Nearby pairs
Other meeting-time pages for Los Angeles
- Los Angeles ↔ MadridNo working-hours overlap
- Los Angeles ↔ AmsterdamNo working-hours overlap
- Los Angeles ↔ StockholmNo working-hours overlap
- Los Angeles ↔ DubaiNo working-hours overlap
- Los Angeles ↔ MumbaiNo working-hours overlap
- Los Angeles ↔ BangaloreNo working-hours overlap
- Los Angeles ↔ SingaporeNo working-hours overlap
- Los Angeles ↔ Hong KongNo working-hours overlap
Sources
- 1.IANA. Time Zone Database
- 2.Nager.Date. Public holidays API · Retrieved