VacationSelector
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Chengdu by TurnOnTheNight, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Chengdu or Santa Fe?

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
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Fe’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 Santa Fe are level on 5.
Food & drink. Chengdu 86, Santa Fe 62: Chengdu leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Chengdu 60, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Chengdu 68, Santa Fe 22: Chengdu leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chengdu 68, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Chengdu 80, Santa Fe 70: Chengdu leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Chengdu 65, Santa Fe 45: Chengdu leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Chengdu 74, Santa Fe 40: Chengdu leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Chengdu 64, Santa Fe 62: Chengdu leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Chengdu 80, Santa Fe 30: Chengdu leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chengdu 50, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chengdu 58, Santa Fe 55: Chengdu leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chengdu and Santa Fe.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights 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

Santa Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ChengduSanta Fe

Where the figures come from

Santa Fe's station stands 199 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Santa Fe 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). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChengduSanta Fe
Official languagePutonghua-
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation500 m2,134 m
Main airportChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureChengduSanta Fe
City population20,937,75787,505
People per km²1,456645
Museums within 10 km1010
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 Santa Fe 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.