Distance from Beijing to Cape Town
Beijing (China) and Cape Town (South Africa) are 12,955 km apart — that's 8,050 miles or 6,995 nautical miles, measured along the great circle (the shortest path over the Earth's surface).
The numbers
- Great-circle distance
- 12,955 km · 8,050 mi · 6,995 nmi
- Initial bearing Beijing → Cape Town
- 247° (WSW)
- Initial bearing Cape Town → Beijing
- 58° (ENE)
- Nonstop flight (rough estimate)
- ≈ 15 h 54 min
- Time zones
- Beijing UTC+08:00 · Cape Town UTC+02:00 (-6 h)
- Sunrise gap today
- 289 min — the sun rises earlier in Beijing
Flight time is a cruise-speed approximation (no routing/wind); driving distance depends on roads and is typically 20–40% longer than great-circle.
The two cities
- Beijing
- 39.9075, 116.3972
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 22:51 UTC / 09:07 UTC
- Cape Town
- -33.9258, 18.4232
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 03:41 UTC / 17:21 UTC
Open in the distance calculator Find the halfway point
Distances here are straight-line (great-circle). Road routes typically run 1.2–1.4× longer — here's why, with the visual.