VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
Valletta from the water, Valletta
VallettaValletta from the water

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Valletta by Pho Tomass, Pexels License.

Beijing or Valletta?

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
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Valletta for

  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Valletta’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, Valletta 68: Valletta leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Valletta 55: Beijing leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Valletta 76: Beijing leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Valletta 46: Beijing leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Valletta 56: Beijing leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Valletta 76: Beijing leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Valletta 58: Beijing leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Valletta 62: Beijing leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Valletta 38: Beijing leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Valletta 50: Beijing leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Valletta 44: Beijing leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Valletta 32: Beijing leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Valletta.

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 food and drink with your weighting.

Valletta
55match

Wins on beaches 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

Valletta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingValletta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Valletta: 1991-2020 normals, Luqa (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingValletta
Official languagePutonghuaEnglish, Maltese
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119112
Elevation43 m56 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsMalta International Airport (MLA)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingValletta
City population21,893,0955,197
People per km²1,3346,496
Museums within 10 km8316
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km63
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

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