VacationSelector
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Chengdu by TurnOnTheNight, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Chengdu or Virginia Beach?

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

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Chengdu 86, Virginia Beach 42: Chengdu leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Chengdu 60, Virginia Beach 30: Chengdu leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Chengdu 68, Virginia Beach 37: Chengdu leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chengdu 68, Virginia Beach 56: Chengdu leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Chengdu 80, Virginia Beach 64: Chengdu leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Chengdu 65, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Chengdu 74, Virginia Beach 27: Chengdu leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. Chengdu 64, Virginia Beach 32: Chengdu leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Chengdu 80, Virginia Beach 40: Chengdu leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chengdu 50, Virginia Beach 38: Chengdu leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chengdu 58, Virginia Beach 32: Chengdu leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chengdu and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Chengdu
Best match
63match

Wins on getting around and food and drink with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ChengduVirginia Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chengdu: 1991-2020 normals, Chengdu (4.5 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChengduVirginia Beach
Official languagePutonghua-
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation500 m7 m
Main airportChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureChengduVirginia Beach
City population20,937,757459,470
People per km²1,456-
Museums within 10 km102
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chengdu or Virginia Beach 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.