VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Beijing or Palermo?

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

  • shopping
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Palermo for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Palermo’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, Palermo 77: Palermo leads by 71 points.
Food & drink. Beijing and Palermo are level on 81.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Palermo 80: Beijing leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Beijing and Palermo are level on 58.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Palermo 72: Palermo leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Palermo 84: Beijing leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Palermo 44: Beijing leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Palermo 50: Beijing leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Palermo 44: Beijing leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Palermo 63: Beijing leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Palermo 62: Beijing leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Palermo 30: Beijing leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Palermo.

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on shopping and wellness with your weighting.

Palermo
62match

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
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Palermo in July

29 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingPalermo

Where the figures come from

Palermo 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.

Palermo's sunshine is measured 67 km from the centre, at Ustica.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingPalermo
Official languagePutonghuaItalian
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119112
Elevation43 m14 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingPalermo
City population21,893,095630,167
People per km²1,3343,924
Museums within 10 km8342
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km61
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

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