Beijing or Zurich?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on value for money and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and nature & day trips with your weighting.
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 Zurich are level on 0.
| Beijing | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 0 | 23 |
| Coast distance | 145 km | 632 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Museums & heritage. Beijing leads by 7 points.7
| Beijing | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 63 | 56 |
| Museums within 10 km | 95 | 76 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 15 | 37 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 16 | 49 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 6 | 1 |
Nature & day trips. Zurich leads by 2 points.2
| Beijing | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 37 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 3 | 16 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 9 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 143 hectares | 48 hectares |
Good for families. Beijing leads by 41 points.41
| Beijing | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 77 | 36 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 41 | 8 |
| Park area within 2 km | 143 hectares | 48 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 12 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Zurich leads by 9 points.9
| Beijing | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 59 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 69 | 119 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Beijing leads by 44 points.44
| Beijing | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 79 | 35 |
| Price level global | 49 | 110.5 |
| Daily budget | — | €248 |
Year-round weather. Beijing leads by 13 points.13
| Beijing | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 53 |
| Monthly daytime high | 2.2 °C to 31.8 °C | 3.6 °C to 24.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 3 mm to 163 mm | 60 mm to 128 mm |
| Dry months | 8 | 0 |
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). Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Beijing | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 10 h 15 m no fares PEK · 25 km | 1 h 35 m €110-163 ZRH · 9 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 9 h 0 m €475-645 PEK · 25 km | 2 h 45 m €110-133 ZRH · 9 km |
| Hong KongHKG | 2 h 55 m €151-190 PKX · 45 km | 11 h 35 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
| ShanghaiPVG, SHA | 1 h 55 m €144-160 PKX · 45 km | 11 h 20 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
| BangkokBKK, DMK | 4 h 30 m €173-234 1 stop PKX · 45 km | 11 h 20 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 1 h 45 m €180-197 PKX · 45 km | 10 h 55 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
| BerlinBER | 9 h 20 m no fares PEK · 25 km | 1 h 25 m €140-176 ZRH · 9 km |
| DohaDOH | 7 h 55 m €595-787 3 stops PKX · 45 km | 5 h 55 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
| Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE | 21 h 20 m no fares PEK · 25 km | 12 h 0 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 13 h 5 m €1,020-1172 2 stops PEK · 25 km | 8 h 20 m no fares ZRH · 9 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. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Beijing | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Putonghua | French, German, Italian, Romansh |
| Currency | Yuan Renminbi (CNY) | Swiss Franc (CHF) |
| Sockets | ACI220 V, 50 Hz | CJ230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+8 | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119 | 112 |
| Elevation | 43 m | 408 m |
| Main airport | Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre88 non-stop destinations | Zürich Airport (ZRH)9 km from centre181 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 6 days | 10 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Beijing | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 21,893,095 | 452,421 |
| People per km² | 1,334 | 5,147 |
| Museums within 10 km | 83 | 63 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 6 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 29 | 78 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beijing or Zurich somewhere new.