VacationSelector
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Shanghai or Virginia Beach?

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

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Shanghai 88, Virginia Beach 42: Shanghai leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Shanghai 72, Virginia Beach 30: Shanghai leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Shanghai 80, Virginia Beach 37: Shanghai leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Shanghai 25, Virginia Beach 56: Virginia Beach leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Shanghai 90, Virginia Beach 64: Shanghai leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Shanghai 80, Virginia Beach 75: Shanghai leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Shanghai 85, Virginia Beach 27: Shanghai leads by 58 points.
Shopping & style. Shanghai 82, Virginia Beach 32: Shanghai leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Shanghai 55, Virginia Beach 40: Shanghai leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Shanghai 66, Virginia Beach 38: Shanghai leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Shanghai 55, Virginia Beach 32: Shanghai leads by 23 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and shopping with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ShanghaiVirginia Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureShanghaiVirginia Beach
Official languagePutonghua-
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation4 m7 m
Main airportShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureShanghaiVirginia Beach
City population24,870,895459,470
People per km²3,922-
Museums within 10 km452
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Shanghai or Virginia Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.