Beijing vs Shanghai for couples
Beijing and Shanghai are both in China, about 1,068 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.
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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
Close on cost: we estimate about €2,960 a month for a couple living centrally in Beijing and €2,960 in Shanghai.
Taxes
Same country, same tax: China is in our low to medium tax tier.
Climate
Shanghai is 4°C warmer on average over the year: 17°C against 13°C in Beijing. Beijing is drier, with about 466 mm of rain a year against 1,034 mm in Shanghai (55% less).
Safety
Our safety score is country-level, so both cities get the same 75 out of 100.
Healthcare
Our healthcare score is country-level, so both cities get the same 64 out of 100.
Internet
Our broadband figure is country-level: about 240 Mbps median fixed download in both.
Language
Main languages in both: Mandarin. English proficiency is rated the same in both: limited English.
Residency and visas
Same country, same rules: long-term residency in China is rated hard to obtain.
Which one fits a couple
As two cities in China, Beijing and Shanghai share every country-level figure, and no factor we score puts either clearly ahead. What sets them apart: Shanghai is 4°C warmer on average (17°C against 13°C); Shanghai is wetter, with 1,034 mm of rain a year against 466 mm; Beijing is near the coast and Shanghai coastal. They are 1,068 km apart.
OurNextCity has each partner answer 12 questions privately, then ranks Beijing, Shanghai and 913 other cities for both of you at once.