VacationSelector

Beijing or Kathmandu?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

The Forbidden City, Beijing
Beijing

Photo: BI ravencrow, Pexels License

Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
Kathmandu

Photo: Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

Your match

Beijing
✓ Best match
65
match

Wins on families and getting around with your weighting.

Kathmandu
48
match

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

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

BeijingKathmandu
Beaches & swimming. Beijing leads by 2 points.2
Food & drink. Beijing leads by 26 points.26
Culture & sights. Beijing leads by 11 points.11
Nightlife. Beijing leads by 22 points.22
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu leads by 10 points.10
Day trips. Beijing leads by 29 points.29
Good for families. Beijing leads by 44 points.44
Getting around. Beijing leads by 44 points.44
Shopping & style. Beijing leads by 17 points.17
Affordability. Kathmandu leads by 29 points.29
Live music & performing arts. Beijing leads by 40 points.40
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing leads by 10 points.10
0255075100

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

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyBeijingKathmandu
Daytime high32 °C29 °C
Night-time low23 °C20 °C
Rainfall in the month163 mm384 mm
Sunshine6 hours a day4 hours a day
Daylight15 hours a day14 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Beijing
2
6
13
21
27
31
32
31
27
19
10
4
Kathmandu
19
22
26
29
29
29
29
29
28
27
23
20
Rainfall, mm
Beijing
3
6
9
23
38
74
163
112
56
27
14
3
Kathmandu
16
23
37
57
113
260
384
317
211
48
7
10
Daylight, hours per day
Beijing
10
11
12
13
14
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Kathmandu
11
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Sunshine, hours per day
Beijing
6
6
7
8
9
7
6
7
7
7
6
6
Kathmandu
6
6
7
7
7
5
4
4
5
7
7
7

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromBeijingKathmandu
ChengduTFU, CTU
2 h 25 m
€217-253
PKX · 45 km
2 h 50 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
BangkokBKK, DMK
4 h 30 m
€173-234
1 stop
PKX · 45 km
3 h 15 m
€389-511
KTM · 4 km
New DelhiDEL
5 h 10 m
no fares
PEK · 25 km
1 h 40 m
€175-205
KTM · 4 km
ShanghaiPVG, SHA
1 h 55 m
€144-160
PKX · 45 km
4 h 50 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
Hong KongHKG
2 h 55 m
€151-190
PKX · 45 km
4 h 5 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
SeoulICN, GMP
1 h 45 m
€180-197
PKX · 45 km
5 h 20 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
DohaDOH
7 h 55 m
€595-787
3 stops
PKX · 45 km
4 h 35 m
€459-552
KTM · 4 km
Kuala LumpurKUL, SZB
5 h 45 m
no fares
PKX · 45 km
4 h 30 m
€444-465
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
ChongqingCKG, CQW
2 h 20 m
no fares
PKX · 45 km
3 h 5 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
9 h 0 m
€475-645
PEK · 25 km
6 h 55 m
€583-665
1 stop
KTM · 4 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureBeijingKathmandu
Official languagePutonghuaNepali
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Nepalese Rupee (NPR)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+5:45
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119Police 100, ambulance 102, fire 101
Elevation43 m1,300 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingKathmandu
City population21,893,095845,767
People per km²1,33417,121
Museums within 10 km839
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 Kathmandu somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.