VacationSelector
Cardiff Castle, Cardiff
CardiffCardiff Castle
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River

Photos: Cardiff by Tevfik Teker, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Chengdu by TurnOnTheNight, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cardiff 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 Cardiff for

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

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

Choose Chengdu for

  • food and drink
  • prices
  • wellness

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. Cardiff 30, Chengdu 5: Cardiff leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Cardiff 45, Chengdu 86: Chengdu leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Cardiff 58, Chengdu 60: Chengdu leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Cardiff 50, Chengdu 68: Chengdu leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cardiff 70, Chengdu 68: Cardiff leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Cardiff 72, Chengdu 80: Chengdu leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Cardiff 58, Chengdu 65: Chengdu leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Cardiff 66, Chengdu 74: Chengdu leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Cardiff 50, Chengdu 64: Chengdu leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Cardiff 46, Chengdu 80: Chengdu leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cardiff 57, Chengdu 50: Cardiff leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cardiff 27, Chengdu 58: Chengdu leads by 31 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cardiff and Chengdu.

Your match

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

Cardiff
52match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Chengdu
Best match
63match

Wins on food and drink and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cardiff in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
16 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
CardiffChengdu

Where the figures come from

Cardiff 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.

Cardiff's sunshine is measured 83 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cardiff: 1991-2020 normals, Cardiff-Wales Airport (14.9 km from centre). Chengdu: 1991-2020 normals, Chengdu (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCardiffChengdu
Official languageEnglishPutonghua
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112 or 999Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation41 m500 m
Main airportCardiff International Airport (CWL)15 km from centre30 non-stop destinationsChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureCardiffChengdu
City population383,53620,937,757
People per km²2,7341,456
Museums within 10 km910
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cardiff 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.