Chongqing or Guangzhou?

Neither city is a place to swim. Chongqing is more than 1,000km from the sea, and its rivers are muddy working water, so in summer you are limited to pools and hot-spring resorts.

Guangzhou is no better in the city itself, but the sandy beaches on Shenzhen's east side are about two hours away. That makes a beach day possible, if long.

Both cities are worth a trip for the food alone, but Guangzhou's kitchen is broader. Cantonese cooking is built around fresh, clean flavour: morning dim sum halls, roast goose and char siu in Xiguan, live seafood cooked to order. Tianhe adds high-end Cantonese restaurants, and there are good regional Chinese and international options too.

Chongqing pulls hard in one direction. Its food is beef-tallow hotpot, fiery xiaomian noodles and chicken buried in dried chillies. If you love heat, that is thrilling. If you don't, the menu narrows quickly, and there is far less variety beyond it.

Guangzhou has more history to visit. The carvings of the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall, the Nanyue King's jade burial suit, ancient Buddhist temples and the colonial villas of Shamian Island give real depth across two or three days.

In Chongqing, the city itself is the main sight: lit-up towers on ridges, Hongyadong's stilt houses and the monorail through buildings. Its museums are the Three Gorges Museum and the wartime-capital sites, and most of the old city has been replaced.

Chongqing has the better nights. Evenings start with the riverbank views and the cable car, the Jiefangbei promenades stay full, and hotpot and skewers run past 2am. The Jiujie bar street in Jiangbei is the place for glossy clubs with table service.

Guangzhou's best habit is siu yeh, a late seafood and beer supper at plastic tables. Beyond that, its clubs, karaoke rooms and Zhujiang New Town bars are mostly aimed at local groups rather than visitors dropping in.

Chongqing has much more dramatic landscape. Nanshan's forest rises straight across the Yangtze from the centre, Gele and Jinyun Mountains are easy escapes, and the giant natural bridges and gorges of Wulong are a day away. Three Gorges cruises also start in the city.

Guangzhou's green spaces are pleasant rather than striking. You get Baiyun Mountain's low hills, riverside promenades, the streams of Conghua and the subtropical forest and waterfalls of Dinghu.

Guangzhou has slightly more choice, mainly because Hong Kong and Macau are each about an hour or so by train, provided your visa lets you back into the mainland. Closer to home are Foshan's Ancestral Temple, Shunde's cooking and the Kaiping watchtowers.

Chongqing's best outings are Chengdu, about an hour by high-speed train, and the Buddhist cliff carvings at Dazu. Quiet stilt-house towns such as Songji and Laitan add a slower day.

Guangzhou is much easier with children. The Chimelong complex in Panyu combines a drive-through safari park with pandas and koalas, a theme park, a water park and a circus. The metro has lifts for buggies, and evening boat trips on the Pearl River round things off.

Chongqing has pandas at its zoo, a science museum and a cable car children love. But constant stairs make a pushchair hard work, and much of the food is too spicy for young children unless you ask for milder versions.

Both cities have large, cheap rail networks signed in English. Guangzhou's metro is the smoother of the two: it reaches the airport and the high-speed stations, and river ferries fill some of the gaps. Its main drawback is sheer size, so forty-minute journeys between districts are normal.

In Chongqing, the problem is height rather than distance. Streets, buildings and bridges sit at different levels, so a short hop can mean dozens of flights of stairs or a lift down twenty floors, and map apps often lose you. Cable cars and long escalators help on the slopes.

Guangzhou's shopping is more interesting because it is a trading city. Whole districts of wholesale markets sell clothing, leather and fabric, you can spend hours tasting at the Fangcun tea market, and Hualin's jade street is in the old western quarter.

Chongqing has big malls around Jiefangbei and Guanyinqiao, but they look much like malls in any large Chinese city. What you can only buy here is edible: packs of hotpot base and Sichuan pepper.

Chongqing is the cheaper of the two. Street skewers, noodle breakfasts and hotpot cost very little, taxis are cheap even over long distances, and upscale hotels cost well below coastal rates. The costs that add up are Yangtze cruises and paid viewpoints.

Guangzhou is also good value, with low-cost dim sum and many free temples and parks. However, imported drinks and cocktail bars cost more, and hotel rates jump during the trade fair seasons.

Guangzhou has more to see on stage. The sculpted Opera House stages touring opera and ballet, the Xinghai Concert Hall on Ersha Island is home to the city's symphony orchestra, and Cantonese opera is still performed in neighbourhood halls in the old west.

Chongqing's best show for a visitor is the face-changing and fire-spitting of Sichuan opera. Beyond the glass Grand Theatre on the Jiangbei waterfront, the live scene is small and almost entirely in Chinese.

Both cities offer hot springs and cheap massage open late, so the difference is in the details. Chongqing's springs have centuries of history, and resorts such as Beiwenquan and Nanwenquan sit on the city's own edges. Locals often end a hotpot night with a foot massage.

Guangzhou's springs are at Conghua, about an hour north, and work best as an overnight stay. Its own way to slow down is the long morning tea, spent over tea and newspapers in parks and teahouses.