Chengdu or Lijiang?

On beaches the two cities are level: neither has one. Chengdu lies deep in the Sichuan Basin and Lijiang high on the Yunnan plateau.

The only real difference is swimming. Chengdu's water parks and hotel pools help in its hot summer, while Lijiang's lakes are too cold to swim in and few hotels there have a pool.

Food is where the two differ most. Chengdu is a place people travel to just to eat: mapo tofu, dan dan noodles, beef-tallow hotpot and dishes dressed in red oil, along with plenty of milder sweet-and-sour and smoky dishes, served at family counters in every residential lane.

Lijiang's Naxi and Yunnan cooking is enjoyable but limited. Baba flatbread, black-goat hotpot, yak and wild mushrooms in the rainy season are the highlights, and the Old Town menus repeat from lane to lane. Its one strength is tea, with Pu'er easy to find and good.

The two are close on culture but offer different kinds of sight. Chengdu has separate institutions spread across a modern city: the Wuhou Shrine, Du Fu Thatched Cottage, working temples at Wenshu and Qingyang, and serious collections at the Jinsha Site Museum and the Sichuan Museum.

Lijiang offers a single setting rather than a list of sights. The UNESCO-listed Old Town of Dayan, the Ming-era murals at Baisha and the living Dongba script give it a living minority culture that Chengdu lacks. In both cities the old streets were heavily rebuilt, so expect atmosphere more than authentic survival.

Chengdu offers the longer and more varied night out. Dinner runs late, then the evening moves on to neon-lit clubs near Jiuyanqiao or quieter craft-beer and cocktail bars in Yulin, and snack streets stay open well after midnight.

Lijiang's nightlife is mostly one canal-side strip of the Old Town, where bars with live singers and drums compete for tour groups. It is easy to find but every bar is much the same, and the alternative is a quiet courtyard drink in Shuhe.

Lijiang wins clearly here, because the scenery begins at the edge of town. Glaciers on Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the turquoise pools of Blue Moon Valley, the high trail above the Jinsha River at Tiger Leaping Gorge and the birdlife of Lashi Lake are all within a day.

Chengdu's own setting is a flat, often hazy plain with riverside greenways. Its strengths are Qingcheng's forested Taoist trails and the long climb up Emeishan through cloud forest, both reached by leaving the city behind.

Chengdu gives more variety within easy reach, much of it by fast train. Within about an hour or so lie the Leshan Giant Buddha, the ancient irrigation works at Dujiangyan, the bronze masks at Sanxingdui and old market towns such as Huanglongxi, and Chongqing makes a striking contrast.

Lijiang's best trips go further afield. Dali and its Bai villages, and the Tibetan monastery at Shangri-La, are each a train ride away, while Baisha and Shuhe are close by taxi. Lugu Lake and Shaxi need an overnight stay.

Chengdu is far easier with children. Watching the pandas at the breeding base in the early morning is a highlight for any age, and the zoo, the aquarium park and the weekend crowds in the big parks add more. The main challenges are summer heat and spicy food.

Lijiang has the car-free Old Town with its streams and the park at Black Dragon Pool, and little else for children. The altitude rules out the snow mountain for young children, and the stone lanes are hard going with a pushchair.

In Chengdu, an extensive metro with English signs reaches the panda base, the airports and the rail stations, and cheap taxis and shared bikes cover the rest. The city is vast, so expect long rides between sights.

Lijiang is the reverse: the Old Town is easy to explore on foot, but almost everything beyond it means a taxi or a hired driver, because there is no rail transit and the buses are hard to use without Chinese. Visitors should set up Chinese payment apps for either city.

Chengdu is a real shopping city, with the big fashion malls around Chunxi Road and the traditional-style quarter by the Daci Temple. Shu brocade, Sichuan embroidery and mountain green teas make souvenirs worth taking home.

In Lijiang's Old Town nearly every house is a shop, but the drums, scarves and trinkets repeat from lane to lane, and much of it was made elsewhere. Pu'er tea cakes and silver bought after comparing shops are the purchases worth making.

Both are inexpensive by Western standards, with Chengdu slightly ahead. Comfortable hotels, metro rides and neighbourhood noodles all cost little, and many temples and museums are cheap or free.

Lijiang's guesthouses and breakfasts are just as good value, but the costs add up from the Old Town entry fee, the snow mountain's cable cars and the inflated restaurant prices on the main lanes.

Chengdu has more going on in the evenings. Sichuan opera variety shows with face-changing play nightly, and the city's livehouses host indie bands and Sichuan-dialect hip-hop.

Lijiang has one remarkable tradition, the Naxi ancient music played by older musicians in an Old Town hall. Apart from that, it offers only large ethnic song-and-dance shows put on for tour groups.

Chengdu builds rest into everyday life. You can spend an afternoon in a bamboo chair in People's Park with tea and mahjong, have your ears cleaned there, find a cheap foot massage on almost any street, and reach hot-spring resorts in the hills towards Qingcheng.

Lijiang has no spa tradition, only hotel spas and basic massage shops. Its calm comes from mountain light, a courtyard inn in Shuhe and early-morning walks before the groups arrive.