VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
Taipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain, Taipei
TaipeiTaipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Taipei by Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Beijing or Taipei?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Taipei for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Taipei’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, Taipei 40: Taipei leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Taipei 88: Taipei leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Taipei 68: Beijing leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Beijing and Taipei are level on 58.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Taipei 78: Taipei leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Taipei 76: Beijing leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Taipei 72: Taipei leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Taipei 86: Taipei leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Taipei 70: Beijing leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Taipei 66: Beijing leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Taipei 55: Beijing leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Taipei 80: Taipei leads by 25 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Taipei.

Your match

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

Beijing
65match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Taipei
Best match
70match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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

Taipei in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
288 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingTaipei

Where the figures come from

Taipei 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). Taipei: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sungshan / Taipei (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingTaipei
Official languagePutonghuaTaiwanese Sign Language, Amis, Taiwanese Hokkien, Rukai, Bunun, Kanakanavu, Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, Paiwan, Yami, Atayal, Saaroa, Kavalan, Tsou, Seediq, Puyuma, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Taiwanese Hakka, Truku, Matsu dialect, Kinmen dialect, Wuqiu dialect
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)New Taiwan Dollar (TWD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119110 or 112 or 119
Elevation43 m10 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsTaiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)33 km from centre
Public holidays this year6 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingTaipei
City population21,893,0952,429,429
People per km²1,3348,938
Museums within 10 km8369
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beijing or Taipei 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.