VacationSelector
The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Salt Lake City 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 Salt Lake City for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Salt Lake City’s own page.

Choose Shanghai for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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. Salt Lake City 12, Shanghai 10: Salt Lake City leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Salt Lake City 40, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 48 points.
Culture & sights. Salt Lake City 42, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Salt Lake City 30, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Salt Lake City 90, Shanghai 25: Salt Lake City leads by 65 points.
Day trips. Salt Lake City 34, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 56 points.
Good for families. Salt Lake City 72, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Salt Lake City 42, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Salt Lake City 36, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 46 points.
Affordability. Salt Lake City 40, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Salt Lake City 55, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Salt Lake City 38, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Salt Lake City and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Salt Lake City
44match

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

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Salt Lake City in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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
Salt Lake CityShanghai

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSalt Lake CityShanghai
Official language-Putonghua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation1,288 m4 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureSalt Lake CityShanghai
City population199,72324,870,895
People per km²6903,922
Museums within 10 km1245
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Salt Lake City 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.