Chinese Puzzle

So to get to the Far East from the Americas one goes west you say? Sounds like a contradiction which many navigators have pondered. Question: If you leave Vancouver at 12:30 pm Wednesday and fly west for 11 and a half hours what time (local) do you get to Beijing? The answer is not 12 midnight should that come to mind.

Facts You Need to Know: Although 8 time zones separate the two cities in the shortest way between them (across the Pacific) in fact the International Date Line requires the time difference between them be calculated starting in Beijing and going west. So in reality there are 16 hours between them. So, if one departs Vancouver at 12.30pm then it is already 16 hours ahead in China, that is to say 28.30 hrs or 4.30 am the next morning. Add to that the 11 and a half hours and one derives 16:0 hours, 4 pm Thursday afternoon local time. I have been invited to teach my first class in the middle school next door and if the English don't gett'em the math sure will!