Beijing or Portland?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on good for families and value for money with your weighting.
Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Beijing and Portland are level on 0.
| Beijing | Portland | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 0 | 27 |
| Coast distance | 145 km | 69 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Museums & heritage. Beijing leads by 28 points.28
| Beijing | Portland | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 63 | 35 |
| Museums within 10 km | 95 | 23 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 15 | 15 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 16 | 65 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 6 | 0 |
Nature & day trips. Beijing and Portland are level on 35.
| Beijing | Portland | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 35 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 3 | 13 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 3 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 143 hectares | 37 hectares |
Good for families. Beijing leads by 43 points.43
| Beijing | Portland | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 77 | 34 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 41 | 8 |
| Park area within 2 km | 143 hectares | 37 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 12 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Beijing leads by 15 points.15
| Beijing | Portland | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 35 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 69 | 29 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Beijing leads by 36 points.36
| Beijing | Portland | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 79 | 43 |
| Price level global | 49 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Beijing leads by 1 points.1
| Beijing | Portland | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 65 |
| Monthly daytime high | 2.2 °C to 31.8 °C | 7.9 °C to 27.7 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 3 mm to 163 mm | 13 mm to 145 mm |
| Dry months | 8 | 3 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Beijing | Portland |
|---|---|---|
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 12 h 30 m no fares PEK · 25 km | 2 h 15 m no fares PDX · 10 km |
| SeattleSEA, BFI | 10 h 55 m no fares PEK · 25 km | 55 m no fares PDX · 10 km |
| San FranciscoSFO | 11 h 50 m no fares PEK · 25 km | 1 h 45 m no fares PDX · 10 km |
| BostonBOS, PSM | 13 h 25 m no fares PEK · 25 km | 5 h 25 m no fares PDX · 10 km |
| WashingtonIAD, DCA | 13 h 45 m no fares PEK · 25 km | 5 h 5 m no fares PDX · 10 km |
| VancouverYVR, YDT | 10 h 40 m no fares PEK · 25 km | 1 h 10 m no fares PDX · 10 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 9 h 50 m no fares PEK · 25 km | 10 h 30 m no fares PDX · 10 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 9 h 55 m no fares PEK · 25 km | 10 h 5 m no fares PDX · 10 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 10 h 15 m no fares PEK · 25 km | 9 h 55 m no fares PDX · 10 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it.
Before you go
| Measure | Beijing | Portland |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Putonghua | – |
| Currency | Yuan Renminbi (CNY) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | ACI220 V, 50 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+8 | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer |
| Emergency number | Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119 | 911 |
| Elevation | 43 m | 152 m |
| Main airport | Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre88 non-stop destinations | Portland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre87 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 6 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Beijing | Portland |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 21,893,095 | 652,503 |
| People per km² | 1,334 | 1,736 |
| Museums within 10 km | 83 | 17 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 6 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 29 | 82 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beijing or Portland somewhere new.