Chengdu or Xi'an?

Both cities lie deep in China's interior, so neither has any beach life. What differs is the place to swim. Chengdu has leisure water parks for its humid summers, while Xi'an has the hot-spring pools of Lintong, which are more for a soak than a swim.

Chengdu is the stronger city for food, and for many visitors it is the reason to come. Sichuan cooking has real range, from mapo tofu and twice-cooked pork to milder smoky and sweet-and-sour dishes. Hotpot is eaten late into the night, and the park teahouses pour jasmine tea.

Xi'an eats differently, with wheat in place of rice: biangbiang noodles, roujiamo and mutton soup with flatbread you crumble in yourself, best from the stalls of the Muslim Quarter. It is satisfying, cheap food, but the choice narrows quickly beyond the local staples.

Here Xi'an is far ahead. The old dynastic capital keeps a complete Ming wall you can cycle around, the Tang-era Wild Goose Pagodas, the vast Daming Palace site and the Shaanxi History Museum, one of China's finest collections.

Chengdu's sights are good but spread across a modern city: the Wuhou Shrine, Du Fu's thatched cottage, working temples and the gold of the Jinsha site. Its old lanes at Kuanzhai Xiangzi are rebuilt, and three or four days cover the city, whereas Xi'an rewards a longer stay.

Chengdu is the city for a late night. Dinner itself runs long over hotpot or skewers. After that come the bar streets around Jiuyanqiao on the Jin River and the quieter cocktail spots of Yulin, with snack streets open past midnight.

Evenings in Xi'an are early and spent outdoors among the crowds. People stroll the floodlit boulevard by the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and graze through the Muslim Quarter, and there is a handful of bars on Defu Xiang. It is pleasant for a beer, but rarely a reason to stay up.

Both cities sit on hazy, flat plains with mountains about an hour away, and Chengdu has the slight edge. Qingcheng's forested Taoist trails, the cloud forest and wild monkeys of Emeishan and the panda country towards Wolong give it more variety. It also has riverside greenways in town.

Xi'an has fewer options, but its big one is more dramatic: the cliff paths and cable cars of Mount Hua make a hard, thrilling day. The Zhongnan foothills offer quieter walks, though there is little green space inside the city.

Both make excellent bases, and the difference lies in what you go out to see. From Chengdu the outings mix monuments with scenery: the Leshan Giant Buddha, the ancient Dujiangyan irrigation works beside Qingcheng Mountain, the bronze masks of Sanxingdui and old market towns such as Huanglongxi.

Days out from Xi'an are mostly about emperors and dynasties: the Terracotta Army paired with Huaqing Palace, the Tang tombs at Qianling, Hanyangling's miniature figures and Famen Temple. Luoyang's Longmen Grottoes are within reach by fast train.

Chengdu is the easier choice with children. The panda breeding base, best early in the morning, delights almost any age, and a zoo, an aquarium park and amusement parks fill other days. Spicy food and long distances still need some planning.

Xi'an has fewer obvious draws: cycling on the wall, an hour at the Terracotta Army and the pandas and golden monkeys of the Qinling wildlife park. After that the sights are aimed at adults, and buggies struggle in the traffic outside the walls.

Chengdu's metro is the more useful, with English signs and lines to the panda base, both airports and the rail stations. The flat streets suit shared bikes. The catch is size: sights sit far apart, so many days involve long rides.

Xi'an's strength is its compact grid inside the wall, where the Bell and Drum Towers, the Muslim Quarter and the Forest of Steles are all within walking distance. Beyond the wall, the metro plus a short bus or taxi reaches the Terracotta Army, but rush-hour roads are badly congested.

Chengdu is the better city for shopping. The fashion malls of Chunxi Road are among the busiest in western China, and there is a traditional-style quarter beside the Daci Temple. For regional buys, look for Shu brocade, Sichuan pepper and green teas from the mountains.

Xi'an leans towards crafts and souvenirs. Calligraphy brushes, seals and ink stones from Shuyuanmen make the best mementoes, and the Muslim Quarter sells dried fruit and shadow puppets. Xi'an has malls too, but nobody comes for fashion.

Both are very cheap by Western standards, with inexpensive noodles, metro and taxis and good-value hotels. The difference is where the money goes. In Xi'an, entry fees for the Terracotta Army, the wall and the palace sites add up over a few days. In Chengdu most temples and museums are cheap or free, and spending rises instead with hotpot dinners, cocktails and train fares for day trips.

Chengdu offers a little more. Sichuan opera variety shows with face-changing and fire-spitting run every night. Its livehouses also host indie bands and Sichuan-dialect hip-hop, a small-venue scene with no real match in Xi'an.

Most of the shows Xi'an puts on are made for visitors, such as Tang music-and-dance dinners and the outdoor spectacle at Huaqing Palace. For something rawer, look for Qinqiang, the loud local opera, in small theatres and parks.

Chengdu is the more restful city, thanks to its teahouse habit. Locals spend whole afternoons in bamboo chairs in People's Park, with mahjong and ear cleaning, and there are massage parlours on almost every street. Hot-spring resorts lie towards Qingcheng.

Xi'an is built for sightseeing, but it has ways to rest tired legs. The Lintong hot springs, where Tang emperors bathed, and the cheap bathhouses in town both help, and so does a walk on the wall early in the morning.