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In Chinese Lunar Calendar, a normal year has 12 lunar months. In order to make up to 365.24 days, an extra month is added during the Leap Year. Chinese lunar calendar dates back centuries before the Julian calendar we use at the present day. It measures time based on the astronomical observations of the movement of the Sun, Moon and stars, and is highly accurate.
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- Decades, Century, Millennium vs. Great Year, Cycle and Epoch
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In the Western calendar terminology:Decade = 10 years
Century = 100 years
Millennium = 1,000 years
In Chinese calendar terminology: Great Year = 12 years
Cycle = 5 Great Years = 60 years
Epoch = 60 Cycles = 60 x 60 years = 3,600 years
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- Chinese Calendar Counting System
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Chinese calendar uses a unique sexagenary cycles counting system. The sexagenary system uses 10 numbers in the "first" (  or heavenly stem) positions and 12 numbers in the "second" (  or earthly branch) positions. These make up a total of 60 numbers.
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Since the Han Dynasty, a day is divided into 12 'double-hours' of equal length.
The first double-hour begins at 11 p.m. of the previous night,and spans just one hour of the begining of the day. The 2nd double-hour spans 1 - 2 a.m. The 3rd double-hour spans 3 - 4 a.m. ... The 6-th double-hour spans 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. ... The 11-th double-hour spans 1-11 p.m. The 12-th double-hour spans 11 p.m. to the first hour of the next day
The double-hours are not numbered as 1 - 12. Instead they are named in the order of the twelve "earthly branch" names: 
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