VacationSelector
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Melbourne 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 Melbourne for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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. Melbourne 50, Shanghai 10: Melbourne leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Melbourne 75, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Melbourne 57, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Melbourne 75, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Melbourne 70, Shanghai 25: Melbourne leads by 45 points.
Day trips. Melbourne 62, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Melbourne 73, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Melbourne 76, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Melbourne 70, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Melbourne 31, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Melbourne 72, Shanghai 66: Melbourne leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Melbourne 54, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Melbourne and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Melbourne
64match

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

Shanghai
66match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 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
MelbourneShanghai

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMelbourneShanghai
Official languageEnglishPutonghua
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number000Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation31 m4 m
Main airportMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureMelbourneShanghai
City population5,350,70524,870,895
People per km²5353,922
Museums within 10 km4345
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Melbourne 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. 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). 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. 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.