VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Chengdu by TurnOnTheNight, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cape Town or Chengdu?

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 Cape Town for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Chengdu for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Chengdu’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. Cape Town 58, Chengdu 5: Cape Town leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Chengdu 86: Chengdu leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town and Chengdu are level on 60.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Chengdu 68: Chengdu leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Chengdu 68: Cape Town leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Chengdu 80: Chengdu leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Chengdu 65: Chengdu leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Chengdu 74: Chengdu leads by 39 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Chengdu 64: Chengdu leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Chengdu 80: Chengdu leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Chengdu 50: Cape Town leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Chengdu 58: Chengdu leads by 13 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Chengdu.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cape Town
61match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Chengdu
63match

Wins on getting around and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Chengdu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
177 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownChengdu

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Chengdu: 1991-2020 normals, Chengdu (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownChengdu
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguagePutonghua
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation5 m500 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownChengdu
City population3,776,31320,937,757
People per km²1,5381,456
Museums within 10 km2210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cape Town or Chengdu 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.