title: timezone conversion in php is not changing the date value
body: <p>I have the following code...</p>
  
  <pre><code>    $stored_date = date_format(date_create('now'), 'Y-m-d H:i:s');
      echo 'Stored date: ' . $stored_date . "&lt;br/&gt;";
  
      $user_timezone = 'Australia/Brisbane';
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I would like to convert $stored_date (which was created based on the server's timezone to a date or a string representation of the date based on $user_timezone.  </p>
  
  <p>I would like to do that using procedural PHP code rather than OO code.  </p>
  
  <p>I have tried..</p>
  
  <pre><code>   date_create($stored_date, timezone_open($user_timezone));
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but that doesn't seem to to give a correct answer.</p>
  
  <p>if <code>$stored_date is '2011-11-15 23:45:35'</code> with the server's timezone being 'America/Toronto' the result I'm getting is the same '2011-11-15 23:45:35'.</p>
  
  <p>however, <code>date_create('now', timezone_open($user_timezone));</code> seems to work and give the correct date as per the $user_timezone.</p>
  
  <p>any ideas on what i'm doing wrong?</p>
  
  <p>thanks</p>