VacationSelector
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River
The Dzhumaya Mosque, Plovdiv
PlovdivThe Dzhumaya Mosque

Photos: Chengdu by TurnOnTheNight, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Plovdiv by Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Chengdu or Plovdiv?

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
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose Plovdiv for

  • culture and sights
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Plovdiv’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, Plovdiv 7: Plovdiv leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Chengdu 86, Plovdiv 50: Chengdu leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Chengdu 60, Plovdiv 66: Plovdiv leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Chengdu 68, Plovdiv 42: Chengdu leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chengdu and Plovdiv are level on 68.
Day trips. Chengdu 80, Plovdiv 70: Chengdu leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Chengdu 65, Plovdiv 40: Chengdu leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Chengdu 74, Plovdiv 65: Chengdu leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Chengdu 64, Plovdiv 33: Chengdu leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Chengdu 80, Plovdiv 78: Chengdu leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chengdu 50, Plovdiv 42: Chengdu leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chengdu 58, Plovdiv 44: Chengdu leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chengdu and Plovdiv.

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 shopping with your weighting.

Plovdiv
50match

Wins on culture and sights and beaches 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

Plovdiv in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
44 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ChengduPlovdiv

Where the figures come from

Plovdiv 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.

Plovdiv's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Kurdjali.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chengdu: 1991-2020 normals, Chengdu (4.5 km from centre). Plovdiv: 1997-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Plovdiv (1.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChengduPlovdiv
Official languagePutonghuaBulgarian
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119112
Elevation500 m172 m
Main airportChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinationsPlovdiv International Airport (PDV)12 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureChengduPlovdiv
City population20,937,757333,994
People per km²1,4563,274
Museums within 10 km1018
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chengdu or Plovdiv 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.