Let’s say people can’t agree on the time to go to bed, and each timezone declared war on every other timezone. Who would win in this conflict? What alliances would form, and will there be betrayal? What would the new world order look like with a standard time for everyone?
GMT+8 looks good with the entire population of China on its side. GMT+1 and +2 have large chunks of Europe and Africa and could be quite strong too. The timezones in the east and west coast of the U.S. might also stand a good chance.
If your friend is of China’s majority Han ethnicity, you can assume that by 3 o’clock he’s referring to Beijing Standard Time. But if your friend is a Uighur, the largest ethnic minority group in Xinjiang, he might be referring to “local time,” which is two hours behind.
^ this is a problem because of the existence of time zones.
In the summer, for instance, it isn’t uncommon in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, to see people enjoying a beautiful sunset … at midnight
^ this is NOT a problem. there is no inherent issue with the sun being up at midnight.
Time Zones cause more trouble than they’re worth, as you pointed out. I’m recommending removing them.
I think we can arrive to a best-of-both-worlds solution if we just up the tolerance for when solar noon can be to 12:00±2 h. If China just had +7 instead of +8 as their timezone then 99 % of the population would have solar noon in between 10:30 and 13:30. Same applies to the entire EU (excluding Outermost Regions) if it had +1. The entirety of South America and most of the Caribbean would fit in +4. The US could definitely get away with 3 timezones instead of its current 5 (-6, -8, -10).