VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Ghent or Shanghai?

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 Ghent for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • shopping
  • families
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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. Ghent 25, Shanghai 10: Ghent leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent and Shanghai are level on 72.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Shanghai 25: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Ghent
54match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on shopping 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.

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
GhentShanghai

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentShanghai
Official languageFrench, German, DutchPutonghua
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation12 m4 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentShanghai
City population272,65724,870,895
People per km²1,7283,922
Museums within 10 km3045
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ghent or Shanghai somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.