VacationSelector
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Petra 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 Petra for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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. Petra 5, Shanghai 10: Shanghai leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Petra 22, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 66 points.
Culture & sights. Petra 85, Shanghai 72: Petra leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Petra 5, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 75 points.
Nature & outdoors. Petra 78, Shanghai 25: Petra leads by 53 points.
Day trips. Petra 30, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 60 points.
Good for families. Petra 25, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 55 points.
Getting around. Petra 25, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 60 points.
Shopping & style. Petra 18, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 64 points.
Affordability. Petra 45, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Petra 10, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 56 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Petra 28, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Petra and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Petra
31match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Petra in July

35 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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
PetraShanghai

Where the figures come from

Petra's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Ma'An.

Petra's station stands 219 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Petra has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePetraShanghai
Official languageArabicPutonghua
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation850 m4 m
Main airportKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-6 days

By the numbers

MeasurePetraShanghai
City population-24,870,895
People per km²-3,922
Museums within 10 km245
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 Petra 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. 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.

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.