VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Beijing or Ottawa?

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

  • food and drink
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Ottawa for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Ottawa’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, Ottawa 35: Ottawa leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Ottawa 45: Beijing leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Ottawa 62: Beijing leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Ottawa 35: Beijing leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Ottawa 55: Beijing leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Ottawa 62: Beijing leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Ottawa 40: Beijing leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Ottawa 40: Beijing leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Ottawa 52: Beijing leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing and Ottawa are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Ottawa.

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on food and drink and shopping with your weighting.

Ottawa
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
15 hdaylight a day

Ottawa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingOttawa

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingOttawa
Official languagePutonghuaFrench, English
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
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 m70 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingOttawa
City population21,893,0951,017,449
People per km²1,334366
Museums within 10 km8320
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 Ottawa 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. 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.