VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Beijing or New York?

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
  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose New York for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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, New York 50: New York leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, New York 92: New York leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, New York 89: Beijing leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, New York 97: New York leads by 39 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, New York 55: Beijing leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, New York 68: Beijing leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, New York 70: New York leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, New York 82: New York leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, New York 97: New York leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, New York 12: Beijing leads by 56 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, New York 99: New York leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, New York 42: Beijing leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and New York.

Your match

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

Beijing
65match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on beaches and nightlife 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

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingNew York

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingNew York
Official languagePutonghua-
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation43 m25 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingNew York
City population21,893,0958,804,190
People per km²1,3347,256
Museums within 10 km83157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km62
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

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