VacationSelector
The Flame Towers from the seafront, Baku
BakuThe Flame Towers from the seafront
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City

Photos: Baku by Zulfugar Karimov, Pexels License; Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License.

Baku 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 Baku for

  • beaches

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

Choose Beijing for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Baku 40, Beijing 6: Baku leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Baku 60, Beijing 81: Beijing leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Baku 62, Beijing 93: Beijing leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Baku 42, Beijing 58: Beijing leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Baku 30, Beijing 60: Beijing leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Baku 45, Beijing 85: Beijing leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Baku 45, Beijing 64: Beijing leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Baku 58, Beijing 69: Beijing leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Baku 48, Beijing 72: Beijing leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Baku 64, Beijing 68: Beijing leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Baku 52, Beijing 68: Beijing leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Baku 30, Beijing 55: Beijing leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Baku and Beijing.

Your match

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

Baku
48match

Wins on beaches with your weighting.

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Baku in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Beijing in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
163 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BakuBeijing

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Baku: 1991-2020 normals, Mashtaga (23.2 km from centre). Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBakuBeijing
Official languageAzerbaijani, Azerbaijani Sign LanguagePutonghua
CurrencyAzerbaijan Manat (AZN)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+8
Emergency number102 or 112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation-28 m43 m
Main airportHeydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)22 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-6 days

By the numbers

MeasureBakuBeijing
City population2,300,50021,893,095
People per km²1,0751,334
Museums within 10 km5083
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km26
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Baku 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.