Bangkok vs Shanghai for couples
Bangkok, in Thailand, and Shanghai, in China, are about 2,889 km apart. Every figure below comes from the data behind our city pages: an estimated monthly cost for a couple, tax tier, annual climate, safety, healthcare, internet speed, language and residency rules. Bangkok leads on cost, healthcare and residency rules; Shanghai on safety.
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Side by side
Source: the datasets behind our city pages. Cost is our model estimate (a country-level cost index scaled for city size); tax tiers are assigned by hand from each country's top marginal income tax rate and overall tax reputation; temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages); rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals); safety and healthcare are our own country-level estimates; internet from the Ookla Speedtest Global Index; English from the EF English Proficiency Index; residency from our hand-reviewed residency dataset (not legal advice); short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset.
Factor by factor
Cost of living
Bangkok is cheaper: we estimate about €2,636 a month for a couple living centrally, against €2,960 in Shanghai. That is €324 a month, or 11%, less.
Taxes
A tie: Thailand and China both sit in our low to medium tax tier.
Climate
Bangkok is 11°C warmer on average over the year: 28°C against 17°C in Shanghai. Shanghai is drier, with about 1,034 mm of rain a year against 1,310 mm in Bangkok (21% less).
Safety
Shanghai is the safer pick: China scores 75 out of 100 on safety, 15 points above Thailand (60).
Healthcare
Bangkok has the stronger healthcare: Thailand scores 70 out of 100 on healthcare, 6 points above China (64).
Internet
Close: about 210 Mbps median fixed download in Bangkok and about 240 Mbps in Shanghai.
Language
Main languages: Thai in Bangkok; Mandarin in Shanghai. English proficiency is rated the same in both: limited English.
Residency and visas
Long-term residency is easier to obtain in Thailand (comparatively open) than in China (hard to obtain). Thailand has a self-funded route from about $1,986 a month in income; we track no income-based route for China. For short visits, 97 of 198 passports can enter Thailand visa-free and 67 can enter China.
Which one fits a couple
If one of you puts cost (€2,636 against €2,960 a month), healthcare (70 against 64 out of 100) and residency rules (comparatively open against hard to obtain) first, Bangkok comes out ahead. If the other cares more about safety (75 against 60 out of 100), Shanghai does.
Climate can pull the two of you apart too: a partner who wants warmth leans toward Bangkok (28°C on average), while one who minds the heat leans toward Shanghai (17°C).
OurNextCity has each partner answer 12 questions privately, then ranks Bangkok, Shanghai and 913 other cities for both of you at once.