VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Beijing or La Spezia?

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 La Spezia for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on La Spezia’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, La Spezia 60: La Spezia leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, La Spezia 58: Beijing leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, La Spezia 40: Beijing leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, La Spezia 28: Beijing leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, La Spezia 79: La Spezia leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, La Spezia 87: La Spezia leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, La Spezia 48: Beijing leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, La Spezia 70: La Spezia leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, La Spezia 35: Beijing leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, La Spezia 50: Beijing leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, La Spezia 28: Beijing leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, La Spezia 32: Beijing leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and La Spezia.

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.

La Spezia
51match

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

La Spezia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
20 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingLa Spezia

Where the figures come from

La Spezia's temperatures are measured 65 km from the centre, at Pisa / S. Giusto.

La Spezia 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). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingLa Spezia
Official languagePutonghuaItalian
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119112
Elevation43 m3 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingLa Spezia
City population21,893,09592,119
People per km²1,3341,792
Museums within 10 km8312
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km62
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beijing or La Spezia 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. 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.