VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Beijing or Wellington?

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
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Wellington for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Wellington 62: Beijing leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Wellington 44: Beijing leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Wellington 45: Beijing leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Wellington 40: Beijing leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Wellington 62: Beijing leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Wellington 68: Beijing leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Wellington 42: Beijing leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Wellington 33: Beijing leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Wellington 56: Beijing leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Wellington 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 Wellington.

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingWellington

Where the figures come from

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingWellington
Official languagePutonghuaEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119111
Elevation43 m0 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingWellington
City population21,893,095216,200
People per km²1,334487
Museums within 10 km8312
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beijing or Wellington 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.