VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Beijing or Lucerne?

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
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Lucerne’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, Lucerne 35: Lucerne leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Lucerne 35: Beijing leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Lucerne 58: Beijing leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Lucerne 28: Beijing leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Lucerne 78: Beijing leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Lucerne 46: Beijing leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Lucerne 8: Beijing leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Lucerne 66: Beijing leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Lucerne 46: Beijing leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Lucerne.

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 food and drink with your weighting.

Lucerne
54match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches 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

Lucerne in July

24 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
141 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingLucerne

Where the figures come from

Lucerne 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.

Lucerne's sunshine is measured 42 km from the centre, at Zurich Town / Ville..

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingLucerne
Official languagePutonghuaFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119112
Elevation43 m436 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingLucerne
City population21,893,09586,234
People per km²1,3342,963
Museums within 10 km8314
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 Lucerne 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. 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.