Kyoto or Shanghai?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on museums & heritage and sights concentration with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and good for families with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Kyoto and Shanghai are level on 17.
| Kyoto | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 17 | 17 |
| Swim season months | 5 | 5 |
| Beaches 10 km | 0 | 0 |
| Coast distance | 47 km | 18 km |
| Water distance | 47 km | 18 km |
Museums & heritage. Kyoto leads by 27 points.27
| Kyoto | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 45 |
| Museums within 10 km | 132 | 108 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 51 | 28 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 39 | 26 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 4 | 0 |
Nature & day trips. Shanghai leads by 20 points.20
| Kyoto | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 22 | 42 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 2 | 9 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 2 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 82 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 83 hectares |
Good for families. Shanghai leads by 15 points.15
| Kyoto | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 81 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 62 | 86 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 83 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 4 | 10 |
Sights concentration. Kyoto leads by 1 points.1
| Kyoto | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 51 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 79 | 73 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Shanghai leads by 9 points.9
| Kyoto | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 79 |
| Price level global | 62.4 | 49 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Shanghai leads by 3 points.3
| Kyoto | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 65 |
| Monthly daytime high | 8.6 °C to 32.4 °C | 8.5 °C to 33.2 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 40 mm to 232 mm | 43 mm to 216 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Kyoto | Shanghai |
|---|---|---|
| SeoulICN, GMP | 1 h 40 m €107-142 KIX · 81 km | 1 h 40 m €173-183 PVG · 33 km |
| TokyoHND, NRT | 1 h 10 m €118-135 ITM · 39 km | 2 h 45 m €326-382 PVG · 33 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 2 h 45 m €327-334 KIX · 81 km | 2 h 0 m €150-154 PVG · 33 km |
| GuangzhouCAN | 3 h 35 m €339-364 1 stop KIX · 81 km | 2 h 5 m €127-144 PVG · 33 km |
| SapporoCTS, OKD | 1 h 55 m no fares ITM · 39 km | 3 h 15 m no fares PVG · 33 km |
| Hong KongHKG | 3 h 35 m €254-314 KIX · 81 km | 2 h 10 m €153-159 PVG · 33 km |
| BangkokBKK, DMK | 5 h 35 m €288-317 KIX · 81 km | 4 h 5 m €170-196 PVG · 33 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 11 h 30 m no fares ITM · 39 km | 12 h 55 m €606-798 1 stop PVG · 33 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 11 h 50 m no fares ITM · 39 km | 11 h 30 m €528-630 1 stop PVG · 33 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 9 h 35 m no fares KIX · 81 km | 8 h 15 m €508-557 1 stop 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 2026-08 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
| Measure | Kyoto | Shanghai |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Japanese | Putonghua |
| Currency | Yen (JPY) | Yuan Renminbi (CNY) |
| Sockets | AB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region | ACI220 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+9 | UTC+8 |
| Emergency number | Police 110, fire 119 | Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119 |
| Elevation | 51 m | 4 m |
| Main airport | Kansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations | Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre200 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 16 days | 6 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Kyoto | Shanghai |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,463,723 | 24,870,895 |
| People per km² | 1,768 | 3,922 |
| Museums within 10 km | 76 | 44 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 4 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 89 | 64 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 5 months | 5 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kyoto or Shanghai somewhere new.