VacationSelector
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River
The Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort, Galle
GalleThe Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort

Photos: Chengdu by TurnOnTheNight, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Galle by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Chengdu or Galle?

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 Chengdu for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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

Choose Galle for

  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Galle’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. Chengdu 5, Galle 80: Galle leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Chengdu 86, Galle 50: Chengdu leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Chengdu 60, Galle 55: Chengdu leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Chengdu 68, Galle 18: Chengdu leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chengdu 68, Galle 66: Chengdu leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Chengdu 80, Galle 50: Chengdu leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Chengdu 65, Galle 42: Chengdu leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Chengdu 74, Galle 35: Chengdu leads by 39 points.
Shopping & style. Chengdu 64, Galle 33: Chengdu leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Chengdu 80, Galle 72: Chengdu leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chengdu 50, Galle 10: Chengdu leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chengdu 58, Galle 70: Galle leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chengdu and Galle.

Your match

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

Chengdu
Best match
63match

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

Galle
48match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Galle in July

28 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ChengduGalle

Where the figures come from

Galle has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chengdu: 1991-2020 normals, Chengdu (4.5 km from centre). Galle: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureChengduGalle
Official languagePutonghuaTamil, Sinhala
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzGM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation500 m0 m
Main airportChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)133 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days-

By the numbers

MeasureChengduGalle
City population20,937,75793,118
People per km²1,456-
Museums within 10 km102
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chengdu or Galle 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.