VacationSelector
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Chengdu by TurnOnTheNight, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Chengdu or Petra?

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

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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

Choose Petra for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Petra’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 and Petra are level on 5.
Food & drink. Chengdu 86, Petra 22: Chengdu leads by 64 points.
Culture & sights. Chengdu 60, Petra 85: Petra leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Chengdu 68, Petra 5: Chengdu leads by 63 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chengdu 68, Petra 78: Petra leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Chengdu 80, Petra 30: Chengdu leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Chengdu 65, Petra 25: Chengdu leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Chengdu 74, Petra 25: Chengdu leads by 49 points.
Shopping & style. Chengdu 64, Petra 18: Chengdu leads by 46 points.
Affordability. Chengdu 80, Petra 45: Chengdu leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chengdu 50, Petra 10: Chengdu leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chengdu 58, Petra 28: Chengdu leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chengdu and Petra.

Your match

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

Chengdu
Best match
63match

Wins on food and drink and nightlife with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on culture and sights and nature and the outdoors 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
14 hdaylight a day

Petra in July

35 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ChengduPetra

Where the figures come from

Petra's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Ma'An.

Petra's station stands 219 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Petra 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chengdu: 1991-2020 normals, Chengdu (4.5 km from centre). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChengduPetra
Official languagePutonghuaArabic
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation500 m850 m
Main airportChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days-

By the numbers

MeasureChengduPetra
City population20,937,757-
People per km²1,456-
Museums within 10 km102
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chengdu or Petra 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.