VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Fes by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Beijing or Fes?

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

  • nightlife
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Fes for

  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Fes’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, Fes 5: Beijing leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Fes 62: Beijing leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Fes 80: Beijing leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Fes 12: Beijing leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Fes 52: Beijing leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Fes 62: Beijing leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Fes 22: Beijing leads by 42 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Fes 40: Beijing leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Fes 68: Beijing leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Fes 80: Fes leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Fes 32: Beijing leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Fes 70: Fes leads by 15 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on nightlife and families with your weighting.

Fes
49match

Wins on wellness 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.

Beijing in July

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

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingFes

Where the figures come from

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes 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.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingFes
Official languagePutonghuaArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation43 m408 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingFes
City population21,893,0951,167,842
People per km²1,3343,650
Museums within 10 km832
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km61

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beijing or Fes 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.