VacationSelector
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Shanghai or Siena?

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 Shanghai for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • families

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

Choose Siena for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Siena’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. Shanghai 10, Siena 14: Siena leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Shanghai 88, Siena 62: Shanghai leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Shanghai 72, Siena 78: Siena leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Shanghai 80, Siena 27: Shanghai leads by 53 points.
Nature & outdoors. Shanghai 25, Siena 65: Siena leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Shanghai 90, Siena 94: Siena leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Shanghai 80, Siena 38: Shanghai leads by 42 points.
Getting around. Shanghai 85, Siena 60: Shanghai leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Shanghai 82, Siena 35: Shanghai leads by 47 points.
Affordability. Shanghai 55, Siena 42: Shanghai leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Shanghai 66, Siena 36: Shanghai leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Shanghai and Siena are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Shanghai and Siena.

Your match

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

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

Siena
51match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Siena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ShanghaiSiena

Where the figures come from

Siena's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Arezzo.

Siena 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. Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureShanghaiSiena
Official languagePutonghuaItalian
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119112
Elevation4 m322 m
Main airportShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureShanghaiSiena
City population24,870,89552,812
People per km²3,922446
Museums within 10 km4530
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Shanghai or Siena 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.