VacationSelector
Galena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain, Aspen
AspenGalena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City

Photos: Aspen by Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License.

Aspen or Beijing?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Aspen for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Aspen’s own page.

Choose Beijing for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Beijing’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Aspen and Beijing are level on 6.
Food & drink. Aspen 45, Beijing 81: Beijing leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Aspen 22, Beijing 93: Beijing leads by 71 points.
Nightlife. Aspen 40, Beijing 58: Beijing leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aspen 95, Beijing 60: Aspen leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Aspen 30, Beijing 85: Beijing leads by 55 points.
Good for families. Aspen 55, Beijing 64: Beijing leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Aspen 72, Beijing 69: Aspen leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Aspen 50, Beijing 72: Beijing leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Aspen 5, Beijing 68: Beijing leads by 63 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aspen 50, Beijing 68: Beijing leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aspen 50, Beijing 55: Beijing leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aspen and Beijing.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Aspen
43match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Aspen in July

27 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
33 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Beijing in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
163 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
AspenBeijing

Where the figures come from

Aspen has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Aspen: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Aspen / Woody Creek (5.2 km from centre). Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAspenBeijing
Official language-Putonghua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation2,405 m43 m
Main airportAspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)5 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureAspenBeijing
City population7,00421,893,095
People per km²7001,334
Museums within 10 km283
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km06

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Aspen or Beijing somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.