Chongqing or Shanghai?

Neither city is for a beach trip. Chongqing is more than 1,000km inland, and its rivers are fast and muddy. Shanghai is on the coast but faces Yangtze mudflats. Its only sand is the walled, filtered bay at Jinshan, about an hour and a half away in an industrial setting. In summer, swimming in either city mostly means a hotel pool, though Chongqing also has hot-spring resorts and Shanghai at least has that one artificial beach.

Both are serious eating cities, but they eat very differently. Chongqing is single-minded: hotpot in chilli-laden tallow broth, xiaomian noodles for breakfast, and skewers and spicy chicken late into the night. Anyone who struggles with spice finds the choice narrows, though split pots help.

Shanghai has the edge for most visitors because of its range. Its own sweet, soy-braised benbang cooking and soup dumplings sit alongside food from every corner of China, a deep international scene, fine dining and the cafés and bistros of the former French Concession. Chongqing has little of that breadth.

Shanghai has more to see, and more of it is distinctive. The Bund's Art Deco and neoclassical waterfront faces the towers of Lujiazui, the former French Concession has its shikumen lanes, and the Shanghai Museum holds outstanding bronzes and ceramics. Add the West Bund galleries and there is enough for several days.

In Chongqing the cityscape is the main event: towers on ridges, the monorail through buildings and Hongyadong lit up at night. The Three Gorges Museum, a few temples and guild halls and the wartime-capital sites round it out. Most of the old city has gone, though, so two or three days covers it.

Shanghai has the more varied night out. There are speakeasy cocktail bars in the former French Concession and hotel bars high above the Bund. Its clubs range from big rooms with international DJs to underground techno, and the busiest run until dawn at weekends.

Chongqing's nights are just as late but built around eating. River views and the cable car lead into hotpot and skewers past 2am, and Jiujie in Jiangbei has loud table-service clubs in the Chinese style. It is lively in the company of locals, but there is far less variety and little of it is aimed at visitors.

Chongqing wins clearly here. It is a city of mountains and rivers. Nanshan's forest paths rise straight across the Yangtze from the centre, Jinyun and Gele mountains make half-day escapes, and Wulong's natural bridges and sinkholes or a Three Gorges cruise take you into big landscapes. Heat, haze and fog limit the good walking to spring and autumn.

Shanghai sits on a flat delta. Its outdoors means Century Park, cycling along the Huangpu, the low Sheshan hills and birdwatching on Chongming Island. Real hiking needs a longer trip to Moganshan or beyond.

Shanghai is one of China's best bases for day trips. Suzhou's gardens are about half an hour away by fast train, Hangzhou's West Lake about an hour and Nanjing a little further. Canal towns such as Zhujiajiao and Wuzhen add stone bridges and boat rides.

Chongqing has some strong single outings. Chengdu and its pandas are an hour away by high-speed train, and there are the Dazu Rock Carvings, the Diaoyu Fortress and quiet stilt-house towns like Zhongshan. Beyond those, longer trips are mostly about landscape, and the choice is narrower than Shanghai's.

Shanghai is far easier with children. Disney is on the metro, Legoland and an ocean park are on the edges of the city, and the science and natural history museums are big and hands-on. Lifts in the stations make a buggy workable. The main strains are the summer heat and the distances between sights.

Chongqing has pandas at its zoo, a riverfront science museum and the thrill of the cable car and monorail. But stairs and steep lanes defeat pushchairs, and much of the food has to be ordered mild for young palates.

Both cities have huge, cheap rail networks signed in English, and neither needs a car. Shanghai's is easier to use: the streets are flat, most stations have lifts, lines run to both airports and Disneyland, and Huangpu ferries make a scenic shortcut. Crossing the city still takes time.

Chongqing's metro and monorail reach almost everywhere, but the ridges complicate every walk, with stairs, lifts and street levels that confuse map apps. Cheap taxis help between the hillside districts.

Shanghai is the shopping city of the two. Beyond the luxury malls of West Nanjing Road and Lujiazui, it has independent designer boutiques on Wukang Road and Anfu Road, fabric-market tailors who make a qipao in a few days, and tea and silk around Yu Garden.

Chongqing's malls around Jiefangbei and Guanyinqiao are big but much like those in any large Chinese city. The local things worth taking home are packs of hotpot base, Sichuan pepper and spicy snacks.

Chongqing makes a budget go much further. Local food, metro rides and taxis are cheap in both cities, but in Chongqing even good mid-range and upscale hotels cost little. The main extras are Yangtze cruises, cable cars and paid viewpoints.

In Shanghai the bargain is eating where locals eat. Central hotels, cocktails and Western restaurants are priced like a European capital's.

Shanghai has far more on stage. Acrobatics shows are a regular part of the city's nights, and Kunqu, Yue and Peking opera all have homes, including the 1920s Yifu Theatre. The symphony, the Grand Theatre and the Oriental Art Center bring ballet and musicals, often in English, and a jazz scene dating back to the 1930s survives in a few clubs.

Chongqing's main draw is Sichuan opera with its face-changing and fire-spitting acts, plus touring shows at the glass Grand Theatre on the Jiangbei waterfront. Beyond that the scene is small and mostly in Chinese.

Both cities have a real tradition of bathing and massage, in different forms. Chongqing has natural hot springs, with outdoor pools in wooded valleys at Beiwenquan and Nanwenquan, though reaching them means leaving the centre. In town, a late foot massage after hotpot is the local habit.

Shanghai's version is the large urban bath centre with pools, saunas and rest halls, alongside hotel spas and traditional medicine clinics. For calm, there are tea houses and morning tai chi in the parks.