New York 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 beaches & swimming and sights concentration with your weighting.
Wins on value for money 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.
The verdict
Choose New York if you want to cover ground on foot, with the notable sights packed close together, museums and day trips to UNESCO-listed places, and the sea 1km from the centre.
Choose Shanghai if you are travelling with children, want a wider spread of attractions and 10 theme parks within reach, and prefer a milder winter and longer warm season, 9-33°C across the year.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. New York leads by 47 points.47
| New York | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 64 | 17 |
| Swim season months | 3 | 5 |
| Beaches 10 km | 17 | 0 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 18 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | 18 km |
Museums & heritage. New York leads by 15 points.15
| New York | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 45 |
| Museums within 10 km | 119 | 108 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 31 | 28 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 26 | 26 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 0 |
Nature & day trips. Shanghai leads by 3 points.3
| New York | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 42 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 4 | 9 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 69 | 82 |
| Park area within 2 km | 134 hectares | 83 hectares |
Good for families. Shanghai leads by 9 points.9
| New York | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 81 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 37 | 86 |
| Park area within 2 km | 134 hectares | 83 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 7 | 10 |
Sights concentration. New York leads by 23 points.23
| New York | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 51 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 268 | 73 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Shanghai leads by 36 points.36
| New York | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 79 |
| Price level global | 100 | 49 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Shanghai leads by 7 points.7
| New York | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 65 |
| Monthly daytime high | 4.5 °C to 30.1 °C | 8.5 °C to 33.2 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 74 mm to 112 mm | 43 mm to 216 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
New York packs its notable places close together, roughly three times as many within walking distance of the centre as Shanghai, so more of a short trip is spent looking. It has UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach where Shanghai has none, and it is the swimming city: the sea sits 1km from the centre against 18km, with 17 beaches nearby.
Shanghai is the stronger family destination, with more attractions clustered near the centre and 10 theme parks within reach against seven. It also runs warmer year-round, 9-33°C against 5-30°C.
Where they are alike
Neither city is a base for wild country. Protected land is a minority of the surroundings in both, 9% around Shanghai and 4% around New York, and the green space that counts sits close to the centre, so day trips supplement a visit rather than justify one.
Their museum collections are comparable in number, so either supports indoor days. Rain is a constant in both: neither has a month at 40mm or less, and both peak in July.
Which traveller are you?
Families with young children will get more from Shanghai: attractions sit thicker near the centre, and there are 10 theme parks within reach against seven, which matters most on a week-long stay.
Anyone who wants swimming folded into a city trip should take New York, where the sea is 1km from the centre, 17 beaches are within range, and the water reaches 23°C at its warmest.
A short-break sightseer travelling on foot is also better served by New York, where notable places cluster tightly and the range of places to eat and go out after dark is its strongest suit.
What the numbers don't tell you
No cost comparison is possible between these cities: the data carries no daily budget figure for either, so nothing here tells you which is the cheaper trip, and the value ranking rests on a different measure. Sunshine hours are also missing for New York, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured rather than poor.
New York's beach advantage is narrower than the number of beaches suggests: the sea reaches 21°C or more in only three months of the year. Shanghai's warmest months are also its wettest, at 192-216mm, so the family attractions that look strongest here land in the rainiest weeks.
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. New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).
New York is at its best in May, June and September, with highs of 22-27°C and rain that falls fairly evenly through the year rather than in bursts, so no month is ruled out by weather alone.
Shanghai's clearest window is October, 23°C with 64mm of rain, and spring is close behind for warmth. June and August are the months to skip: still warm, but 192-216mm of rain falls in each.
Getting there
| Flying from | New York | Shanghai |
|---|---|---|
| TokyoHND, NRT | 13 h 30 m €989-1136 JFK · 21 km | 2 h 45 m €326-382 PVG · 33 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 13 h 35 m no fares JFK · 21 km | 2 h 0 m €150-154 PVG · 33 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 5 h 20 m €314-354 1 stop JFK · 21 km | 12 h 55 m €606-798 1 stop PVG · 33 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 7 h 10 m €459-498 JFK · 21 km | 11 h 30 m €528-630 1 stop PVG · 33 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 1 h 20 m €206-234 LGA · 13 km | 14 h 5 m no fares PVG · 33 km |
| DallasDFW, DAL, AFW | 3 h 20 m €201-385 LGA · 13 km | 14 h 35 m no fares PVG · 33 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 7 h 30 m €445-517 JFK · 21 km | 11 h 35 m no fares PVG · 33 km |
| DetroitDTW, DET, YIP | 1 h 35 m €193-276 1 stop EWR · 14 km | 14 h 10 m no fares PVG · 33 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 13 h 40 m no fares EWR · 14 km | 8 h 15 m €508-557 1 stop PVG · 33 km |
| Buenos AiresEZE, AEP | 10 h 40 m no fares JFK · 21 km | 23 h 45 m €1,545-1873 2 stops 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 | New York | 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-5, UTC-4 in summer | UTC+8 |
| Emergency number | 911 | Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119 |
| Elevation | 25 m | 4 m |
| Main airport | John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre188 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 | New York | Shanghai |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 8,804,190 | 24,870,895 |
| People per km² | 7,256 | 3,922 |
| Museums within 10 km | 157 | 44 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 132 | 64 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 3 months | 5 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow New York or Shanghai somewhere new.