VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
The Esplanade boardwalk and its palms, Cairns
CairnsThe Esplanade boardwalk and its palms

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Cairns by Donaldytong, Public domain.

Beijing or Cairns?

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 Beijing for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Cairns for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Cairns’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. Beijing 6, Cairns 62: Cairns leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Cairns 40: Beijing leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Cairns 22: Beijing leads by 71 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Cairns 42: Beijing leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Cairns 95: Cairns leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Cairns 45: Beijing leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Cairns 66: Cairns leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Cairns 45: Beijing leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Cairns 28: Beijing leads by 44 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Cairns 35: Beijing leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Cairns 22: Beijing leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Cairns 45: Beijing leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Cairns.

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Cairns
46match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Cairns in July

24 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
30 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingCairns

Where the figures come from

Cairns's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Green Island Aws.

Cairns 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. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Cairns: 1993-2010 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Green Island Aws (27 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingCairns
Official languagePutonghuaEnglish
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+10
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119000
Elevation43 m7 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsCairns International Airport (CNS)6 km from centre32 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingCairns
City population21,893,095146,778
People per km²1,334301
Museums within 10 km831
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km61
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beijing or Cairns 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.