Beijing vs Seoul for couples
Beijing, in China, and Seoul, in South Korea, are about 953 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. Beijing leads on cost, tax, safety and internet speed; Seoul on healthcare, getting by in English and residency rules.
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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
Beijing is cheaper: we estimate about €2,960 a month for a couple living centrally, against €3,749 in Seoul. That is €789 a month, or 21%, less.
Taxes
Beijing has the lighter tax load: China is in our low to medium tax tier, South Korea in our high tax tier.
Climate
Beijing is 1°C warmer on average over the year: 13°C against 12°C in Seoul. Beijing is drier, with about 466 mm of rain a year against 1,250 mm in Seoul (63% less).
Safety
Beijing is the safer pick: China scores 75 out of 100 on safety, 3 points above South Korea (72).
Healthcare
Seoul has the stronger healthcare: South Korea scores 82 out of 100 on healthcare, 18 points above China (64).
Internet
Beijing has faster home internet: about 240 Mbps median fixed download against about 170 Mbps in Seoul.
Language
Main languages: Mandarin in Beijing; Korean in Seoul. English goes further in Seoul (some English) than in Beijing (limited English).
Residency and visas
Long-term residency is easier to obtain in South Korea (possible, with conditions) than in China (hard to obtain). For short visits, 67 of 198 passports can enter China visa-free and 62 can enter South Korea.
Which one fits a couple
If one of you puts cost (€2,960 against €3,749 a month), tax (low to medium tax against high tax), safety (75 against 72 out of 100) and internet speed (240 Mbps against 170 Mbps) first, Beijing comes out ahead. If the other cares more about healthcare (82 against 64 out of 100), getting by in English (some English against limited English) and residency rules (possible, with conditions against hard to obtain), Seoul does.
Climate can pull the two of you apart too: whoever minds rain will prefer Beijing (466 mm a year against 1,250 mm).
Both are major cities, but Beijing is near the coast and Seoul is coastal.
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