VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Beijing or Newport Beach?

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
  • prices
  • getting around

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

Choose Newport Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Newport Beach’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, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Newport Beach 50: Beijing leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Newport Beach 20: Beijing leads by 73 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Newport Beach 33: Beijing leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Newport Beach 66: Newport Beach leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Newport Beach 70: Beijing leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Newport Beach 80: Newport Beach leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Newport Beach 20: Beijing leads by 49 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Newport Beach 62: Beijing leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Newport Beach 15: Beijing leads by 53 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Newport Beach 46: Beijing leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Newport Beach 44: Beijing leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Newport Beach.

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 prices with your weighting.

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingNewport Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingNewport Beach
Official languagePutonghua-
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation43 m3 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingNewport Beach
City population21,893,09585,239
People per km²1,334622
Museums within 10 km834
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beijing or Newport Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.