VacationSelector
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower
Palms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue, West Palm Beach
West Palm BeachPalms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue

Photos: Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; West Palm Beach by Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Shanghai or West Palm 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
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose West Palm Beach for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on West Palm 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, West Palm Beach 80: West Palm Beach leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Shanghai 88, West Palm Beach 52: Shanghai leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Shanghai 72, West Palm Beach 42: Shanghai leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Shanghai 80, West Palm Beach 36: Shanghai leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Shanghai 25, West Palm Beach 58: West Palm Beach leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Shanghai 90, West Palm Beach 55: Shanghai leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Shanghai 80, West Palm Beach 66: Shanghai leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Shanghai 85, West Palm Beach 38: Shanghai leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. Shanghai 82, West Palm Beach 64: Shanghai leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Shanghai 55, West Palm Beach 23: Shanghai leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Shanghai 66, West Palm Beach 47: Shanghai leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Shanghai 55, West Palm Beach 44: Shanghai leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Shanghai and West Palm 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 nightlife with your weighting.

West Palm Beach
50match

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

West Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ShanghaiWest Palm Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre). West Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureShanghaiWest Palm 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 m6 m
Main airportShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureShanghaiWest Palm Beach
City population24,870,895117,415
People per km²3,922786
Museums within 10 km454
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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