VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Beijing or Lima?

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

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • wellness

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

Choose Lima for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Lima’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, Lima 42: Lima leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Lima 88: Lima leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Lima 66: Beijing leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Lima 62: Lima leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Lima 45: Beijing leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Lima 34: Beijing leads by 51 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Lima 42: Beijing leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Lima 35: Beijing leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Lima 52: Beijing leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Lima 70: Lima leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Lima 53: Beijing leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Lima 25: Beijing leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Lima.

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Lima
51match

Wins on beaches and food and drink 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

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingLima

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingLima
Official languagePutonghuaSpanish, Aymara, Quechua
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Sol (PEN)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119111 or 911
Elevation43 m154 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingLima
City population21,893,0959,943,800
People per km²1,3343,721
Museums within 10 km8347
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km62
Swim season, months above 21 °C-2 months

Where else could you go?

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