Los Angeles or Shanghai?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, 1 point apart
Wins on year-round weather and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on good for families and value for money 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. Los Angeles leads by 12 points.12
| Los Angeles | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 29 | 17 |
| Beaches 25 km | 11 | — |
| Beaches 10 km | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 5 |
| Warmest sea temp | 20.2 °C | — |
| Scoring variant | beachScoreWideRing | — |
| Declared | 2026-08-25 | — |
| Register | seed/editorial-overrides.json | — |
| Coast distance | — | 18 km |
| Water distance | — | 18 km |
Museums & heritage. Los Angeles leads by 4 points.4
| Los Angeles | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 49 | 45 |
| Museums within 10 km | 69 | 108 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 23 | 28 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 33 | 26 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
Nature & day trips. Los Angeles leads by 20 points.20
| Los Angeles | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 42 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 26 | 9 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 80 | 82 |
| Park area within 2 km | 20 hectares | 83 hectares |
Good for families. Shanghai leads by 48 points.48
| Los Angeles | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 33 | 81 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 11 | 86 |
| Park area within 2 km | 20 hectares | 83 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 10 |
Sights concentration. Los Angeles leads by 3 points.3
| Los Angeles | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 51 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 88 | 73 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Shanghai leads by 36 points.36
| Los Angeles | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 79 |
| Price level global | 100 | 49 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Los Angeles leads by 22 points.22
| Los Angeles | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 87 | 65 |
| Monthly daytime high | 18.6 °C to 24.7 °C | 8.5 °C to 33.2 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 0 mm to 76 mm | 43 mm to 216 mm |
| Dry months | 8 | 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. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Los Angeles | Shanghai |
|---|---|---|
| TokyoHND, NRT | 11 h 0 m €785-892 1 stop LAX · 19 km | 2 h 45 m €326-382 PVG · 33 km |
| ChengduTFU, CTU | 14 h 15 m no fares LAX · 19 km | 2 h 35 m €216-247 PVG · 33 km |
| San FranciscoSFO | 1 h 20 m no fares LAX · 19 km | 12 h 15 m no fares PVG · 33 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 12 h 30 m no fares LAX · 19 km | 2 h 0 m €150-154 PVG · 33 km |
| GuangzhouCAN | 14 h 20 m no fares LAX · 19 km | 2 h 5 m €127-144 PVG · 33 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 5 h 20 m no fares LAX · 19 km | 14 h 40 m no fares PVG · 33 km |
| ShenzhenSZX | 14 h 20 m no fares LAX · 19 km | 2 h 5 m €170-179 SHA · 14 km |
| SeattleSEA, BFI | 2 h 30 m no fares LAX · 19 km | 11 h 30 m no fares PVG · 33 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 11 h 0 m no fares LAX · 19 km | 11 h 30 m €528-630 1 stop PVG · 33 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 16 h 25 m €964-1015 LAX · 19 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 2026-09 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
| Measure | Los Angeles | Shanghai |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | – | Putonghua |
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | Yuan Renminbi (CNY) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | ACI220 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer | UTC+8 |
| Emergency number | 911 | Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119 |
| Elevation | 106 m | 4 m |
| Main airport | Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre180 non-stop destinations | Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre200 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 6 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Los Angeles | Shanghai |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 3,898,747 | 24,870,895 |
| People per km² | 2,994 | 3,922 |
| Museums within 10 km | 38 | 44 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 46 | 64 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | 5 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Los Angeles or Shanghai somewhere new.