VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie

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

Beijing or Ghent?

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

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

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

Choose Ghent for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Ghent’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, Ghent 25: Ghent leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Ghent 62: Beijing leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Ghent 72: Beijing leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Ghent 55: Beijing leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Ghent 35: Beijing leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Ghent 88: Ghent leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Ghent 50: Beijing leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Ghent 78: Ghent leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Ghent 50: Beijing leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Ghent 38: Beijing leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Ghent 60: Beijing leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Ghent 33: Beijing leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Ghent.

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

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

Ghent
54match

Wins on beaches and getting around 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

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingGhent

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingGhent
Official languagePutonghuaFrench, German, Dutch
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119112
Elevation43 m12 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingGhent
City population21,893,095272,657
People per km²1,3341,728
Museums within 10 km8330
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km65
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beijing or Ghent 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.