I would like to get the timezone difference between New York and Hong Kong with Node.js moment module. I have done some preliminary work.
var NewYork_time_hr
Not sure about "simpler", but more correct (since not all timezones are a full hour from each other):
// get the current time so we know which offset to take (DST is such bullkitten)
var now = moment.utc();
// get the zone offsets for this time, in minutes
var NewYork_tz_offset = moment.tz.zone("America/New_York").offset(now);
var HongKong_tz_offset = moment.tz.zone("Asia/Hong_Kong").offset(now);
// calculate the difference in hours
console.log((NewYork_tz_offset - HongKong_tz_offset) / 60);
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/moment.js/2.10.6/moment.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/moment-timezone/0.4.1/moment-timezone-with-data-2010-2020.min.js"></script>