VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Johannesburg by K, Pexels License.

Beijing or Johannesburg?

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

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Johannesburg for

  • nightlife
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Johannesburg’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, Johannesburg 5: Beijing leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Johannesburg 58: Beijing leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Johannesburg 56: Beijing leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Johannesburg 62: Johannesburg leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Johannesburg 55: Beijing leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Johannesburg 52: Beijing leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Johannesburg 42: Beijing leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Johannesburg 18: Beijing leads by 51 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Johannesburg 58: Beijing leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Johannesburg 72: Johannesburg leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Johannesburg 55: Beijing leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Johannesburg 28: Beijing leads by 27 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on nightlife 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

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingJohannesburg

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingJohannesburg
Official languagePutonghuaEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+2
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119112
Elevation43 m1,753 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingJohannesburg
City population21,893,0954,803,262
People per km²1,3342,922
Museums within 10 km8314
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km62

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beijing or Johannesburg 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.