VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Beijing or Petra?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Petra for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Petra’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, Petra 5: Beijing leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Petra 22: Beijing leads by 59 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Petra 85: Beijing leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Petra 5: Beijing leads by 53 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Petra 78: Petra leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Petra 30: Beijing leads by 55 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Petra 25: Beijing leads by 39 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Petra 25: Beijing leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Petra 18: Beijing leads by 54 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Petra 45: Beijing leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Petra 10: Beijing leads by 58 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Petra 28: Beijing leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Petra.

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 live music and the arts with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on 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

Petra in July

35 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingPetra

Where the figures come from

Petra's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Ma'An.

Petra's station stands 219 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Petra 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingPetra
Official languagePutonghuaArabic
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation43 m850 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingPetra
City population21,893,095-
People per km²1,334-
Museums within 10 km832
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 Petra 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.