VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

San Francisco 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 San Francisco for

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

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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. San Francisco 25, Shanghai 10: San Francisco leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Shanghai 25: San Francisco leads by 55 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 18 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 14 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 24 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Shanghai 66: San Francisco leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 13 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Francisco and Shanghai.

Your match

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

San Francisco
59match

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

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
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
San FranciscoShanghai

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoShanghai
Official language-Putonghua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation16 m4 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoShanghai
City population873,96524,870,895
People per km²1,4553,922
Museums within 10 km5145
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 San Francisco 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.