Two very different races. Here's every stat, side by side, to help you pick.
Indicative — based on GPX data. Both courses normalised to start at 0m.
✓ marks the better number on that stat.
China's two biggest marathons, both ballot-entry, both point-to-point. Shanghai is the flatter of the two (75m of gain) with a 2:05:35 course record; Beijing gains slightly more (100m) with a comparable 2:07:06 mark. Both run in the same general window late in the year — Shanghai and Beijing just weeks apart in the autumn calendar.
Shanghai's course threads through the Bund and the city's modern skyline; Beijing runs past Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. For a marginally flatter, faster course, Shanghai has a small edge; for the more historically loaded route past China's most famous landmarks, Beijing wins on atmosphere.