VacationSelector

Kathmandu or Shanghai?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
Kathmandu

Photo: Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
Shanghai

Photo: xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped

Your match

Kathmandu
48
match

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

Shanghai
✓ Best match
66
match

Wins on families and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

KathmanduShanghai
Beaches & swimming. Shanghai leads by 6 points.6
Food & drink. Shanghai leads by 33 points.33
Culture & sights. Kathmandu leads by 10 points.10
Nightlife. Shanghai leads by 44 points.44
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu leads by 45 points.45
Day trips. Shanghai leads by 34 points.34
Good for families. Shanghai leads by 60 points.60
Getting around. Shanghai leads by 60 points.60
Shopping & style. Shanghai leads by 27 points.27
Affordability. Kathmandu leads by 42 points.42
Live music & performing arts. Shanghai leads by 38 points.38
Wellness & relaxation. Shanghai leads by 10 points.10
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kathmandu and Shanghai.

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyKathmanduShanghai
Daytime high29 °C33 °C
Night-time low20 °C26 °C
Rainfall in the month384 mm151 mm
Sunshine4 hours a day6 hours a day
Sea temperatureNo sea26 °C
Daylight14 hours a day14 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Kathmandu
19
22
26
29
29
29
29
29
28
27
23
20
Shanghai
9
11
15
21
26
28
33
33
29
23
18
12
Sea temperature, °C
Kathmandu
No coastline within reach
Shanghai
8
7
10
14
19
22
26
28
26
21
17
12
Rainfall, mm
Kathmandu
16
23
37
57
113
260
384
317
211
48
7
10
Shanghai
69
65
88
72
84
192
151
216
97
64
53
43
Daylight, hours per day
Kathmandu
11
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Shanghai
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
11
11
10
Sunshine, hours per day
Kathmandu
6
6
7
7
7
5
4
4
5
7
7
7
Shanghai
4
4
5
5
6
4
6
6
5
5
4
4

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromKathmanduShanghai
ChengduTFU, CTU
2 h 50 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
2 h 35 m
€216-247
PVG · 33 km
Kuala LumpurKUL, SZB
4 h 30 m
€444-465
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
5 h 10 m
€161-231
1 stop
PVG · 33 km
GuangzhouCAN
4 h 0 m
€434-523
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
2 h 5 m
no fares
SHA · 14 km
TokyoHND, NRT
6 h 45 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
2 h 45 m
€326-382
PVG · 33 km
New DelhiDEL
1 h 40 m
€175-205
KTM · 4 km
5 h 45 m
no fares
PVG · 33 km
ChongqingCKG, CQW
3 h 5 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
2 h 25 m
€175-196
PVG · 33 km
BangkokBKK, DMK
3 h 15 m
€389-511
KTM · 4 km
4 h 5 m
€170-196
PVG · 33 km
BeijingPEK, PKX
4 h 25 m
€450-780
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
2 h 0 m
€150-154
PVG · 33 km
Abu DhabiAUH
4 h 15 m
€415-478
KTM · 4 km
8 h 20 m
no fares
PVG · 33 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
6 h 55 m
€583-665
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
10 h 5 m
no fares
PVG · 33 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-09 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureKathmanduShanghai
Official languageNepaliPutonghua
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation1,300 m4 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre208 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-6 days

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduShanghai
City population845,76724,870,895
People per km²17,1213,922
Museums within 10 km944
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.