VacationSelector
Galena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain, Aspen
AspenGalena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River

Photos: Aspen by Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Chengdu by TurnOnTheNight, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Aspen or Chengdu?

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
  • beaches

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

Choose Chengdu for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Chengdu’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 6, Chengdu 5: Aspen leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Aspen 45, Chengdu 86: Chengdu leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Aspen 22, Chengdu 60: Chengdu leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Aspen 40, Chengdu 68: Chengdu leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aspen 95, Chengdu 68: Aspen leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Aspen 30, Chengdu 80: Chengdu leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Aspen 55, Chengdu 65: Chengdu leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Aspen 72, Chengdu 74: Chengdu leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Aspen 50, Chengdu 64: Chengdu leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Aspen 5, Chengdu 80: Chengdu leads by 75 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aspen and Chengdu are level on 50.
Wellness & relaxation. Aspen 50, Chengdu 58: Chengdu leads by 8 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aspen and Chengdu.

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 beaches with your weighting.

Chengdu
Best match
63match

Wins on prices and day trips 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

Chengdu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
177 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AspenChengdu

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). Chengdu: 1991-2020 normals, Chengdu (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAspenChengdu
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 m500 m
Main airportAspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)5 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureAspenChengdu
City population7,00420,937,757
People per km²7001,456
Museums within 10 km210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00

Where else could you go?

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