VacationSelector
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Shanghai or Wellington?

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

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Shanghai 88, Wellington 62: Shanghai leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Shanghai 72, Wellington 44: Shanghai leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Shanghai 80, Wellington 45: Shanghai leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Shanghai 25, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 53 points.
Day trips. Shanghai 90, Wellington 40: Shanghai leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Shanghai 80, Wellington 62: Shanghai leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Shanghai 85, Wellington 68: Shanghai leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Shanghai 82, Wellington 42: Shanghai leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Shanghai 55, Wellington 33: Shanghai leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Shanghai 66, Wellington 56: Shanghai leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Shanghai 55, Wellington 30: Shanghai leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Shanghai and Wellington.

Your match

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

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches 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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ShanghaiWellington

Where the figures come from

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureShanghaiWellington
Official languagePutonghuaEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119111
Elevation4 m0 m
Main airportShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureShanghaiWellington
City population24,870,895216,200
People per km²3,922487
Museums within 10 km4512
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Shanghai or Wellington 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.