VacationSelector
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind

Photos: Chengdu by TurnOnTheNight, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Chengdu or Queenstown?

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

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Queenstown for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Queenstown’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, Queenstown 20: Queenstown leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Chengdu 86, Queenstown 45: Chengdu leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Chengdu 60, Queenstown 12: Chengdu leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Chengdu 68, Queenstown 42: Chengdu leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chengdu 68, Queenstown 97: Queenstown leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Chengdu 80, Queenstown 50: Chengdu leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Chengdu 65, Queenstown 60: Chengdu leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Chengdu 74, Queenstown 45: Chengdu leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Chengdu 64, Queenstown 28: Chengdu leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Chengdu 80, Queenstown 20: Chengdu leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chengdu 50, Queenstown 14: Chengdu leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chengdu 58, Queenstown 42: Chengdu leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chengdu and Queenstown.

Your match

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

Chengdu
Best match
63match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Queenstown
40match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Queenstown in July

6 °Cdaytime high
-1 °Cnight-time low
115 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
9 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ChengduQueenstown

Where the figures come from

Queenstown 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). Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureChengduQueenstown
Official languagePutonghuaEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119111
Elevation500 m324 m
Main airportChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinationsQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureChengduQueenstown
City population20,937,75729,000
People per km²1,456-
Museums within 10 km100
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 Queenstown 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.