VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Beijing or York?

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
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose York for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: York leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, York 42: Beijing leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, York 70: Beijing leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, York 36: Beijing leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, York 62: York leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, York 80: Beijing leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, York 60: Beijing leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, York 72: York leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, York 46: Beijing leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, York 38: Beijing leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, York 38: Beijing leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, York 34: Beijing leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and York.

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 prices with your weighting.

York
49match

Wins on beaches and getting around 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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingYork

Where the figures come from

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingYork
Official languagePutonghuaEnglish
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119112 or 999
Elevation43 m25 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingYork
City population21,893,095208,400
People per km²1,334766
Museums within 10 km8324
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km62

Where else could you go?

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