Beijing or Ulaanbaatar?

Neither city works for a beach trip. From Beijing you can at least reach the Bohai Sea at Beidaihe in about two hours by fast train, though the water there is shallow, grey and crowded. Ulaanbaatar has only cold summer paddling in the Tuul River and the Terelj streams, so in both cities swimming means a hotel pool.

Beijing is a serious food city. You get roast duck carved at the table, hand-pulled noodles, cumin lamb skewers and copper-pot hotpot in winter, and the provincial restaurants serve some of the best Sichuan, Yunnan and Xinjiang cooking in the country.

Ulaanbaatar's food is built for keeping warm on the steppe. Buuz, khuushuur and salty milk tea are filling but plain, and Korean barbecue and Russian places add some variety. Vegetarians will have a hard time.

Few capitals can match Beijing for sights. The Forbidden City on its imperial axis, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace and the National Museum could fill a week, although each one takes a morning to reach and see.

Ulaanbaatar's culture is narrower and more intimate. Gandan Monastery's chanting monks, the Choijin Lama Temple among the tower blocks and the Zanabazar bronzes are worth seeing, but most of the city is Soviet-era blocks and glass towers.

Beijing offers the bigger and more varied night out, from the cocktail bars and late clubs of Sanlitun to small courtyard and rooftop bars around Gulou. Ulaanbaatar's evenings revolve around pubs, karaoke rooms and a few clubs playing local hip-hop near Sukhbaatar Square and Seoul Street. They are lively on summer weekends but run out after a night or two. In both cities you get between bars by taxi rather than on foot.

Ulaanbaatar comes out ahead because wilderness starts at the city's edge. You can hike Bogd Khan Uul in a day from the southern suburbs, and Terelj and Hustai offer horse rides across open steppe, marmots and the reintroduced takhi.

Beijing's outdoors centre on the Yanshan mountains, where walking the wild Great Wall between watchtowers is superb. The Fragrant Hills, Shidu gorge and winter skiing at Yanqing add more, but smog can hide the hills. Ulaanbaatar's green season is short, running only from June to early September.

Beijing is one of the great day-trip bases. You can choose between several sections of the Great Wall, the Ming and Qing tombs, or a fast train to Tianjin's concession waterfront in half an hour or to Chengde's palace and temples in about an hour.

From Ulaanbaatar the choice is small: the steel Chinggis Khaan statue at Tsonjin Boldog, the ruined Manzushir Monastery or a visit to a herding family. Kharkhorin, the old imperial capital, is too far for a day and needs an overnight stay.

Beijing gives children far more to do in the city itself. There is the Universal theme park, the pandas and aquarium at the zoo, a hands-on science museum and the toboggan down from Mutianyu. The price is a lot of walking and heavy crowds during Chinese school vacations.

In Ulaanbaatar the fun is mostly outside town: sleeping in a ger, riding gentle horses and spotting marmots. The dinosaur museum's Gobi fossils are the main draw in the city, where broken pavements and hard road crossings make getting around with small children tiring.

Beijing's huge metro is signposted in English and reaches most sights and both airports, though changing lines and crossing the ring roads takes time. Ulaanbaatar has no metro or tram. Its centre is easy to walk, but beyond Sukhbaatar Square you rely on taxis or crowded buses labelled in Cyrillic, through heavy traffic. In both cities the big outing usually means hiring a driver, to the Great Wall in one and to the national parks in the other.

Beijing offers far more choice, from the malls of Guomao and Sanlitun to the Panjiayuan antiques market, the silk market and the brush and paper shops of Liulichang. Ulaanbaatar is a focused stop for cashmere, with factory outlets and the State Department Store on Peace Avenue. It also has felt goods, horse-head fiddles and the sprawling Narantuul market, but very little fashion.

Day to day, both are cheap. Dumplings, taxis and entry to the main sights cost little in either city.

The difference is where the money goes. In Beijing it goes on international hotels, the famous duck restaurants and a driver to the Wall. In Ulaanbaatar the driver, guide and vehicle for the countryside can cost more than the rest of the trip, and central hotels cost more in summer.

Beijing has much more on stage. There is Peking opera every night in historic guild halls, acrobatics and kung fu shows that need no Mandarin, and visiting ballet and orchestras at the egg-shaped National Centre for the Performing Arts. Ulaanbaatar has one essential evening: the traditional show of throat singing, horse-head fiddle and contortionists. Beyond that it has opera and ballet with easy tickets at the salmon-pink theatre on Sukhbaatar Square, and the Naadam festival in July.

Neither city is restful, but Beijing gives tired legs far more help. There are foot and tuina massage parlours everywhere, bathhouses with hot pools and sleeping halls that never close, and the hot springs at Xiaotangshan just north of the city.

Ulaanbaatar has little beyond hotel spas and Korean-style saunas, and the country's hot springs are a long drive away. For most visitors the restful part is a quiet night by a wood stove in a Terelj ger camp.