Chongqing or Shenzhen?

Chongqing has no beach to offer. It sits deep in the hills of the south-west, and its two rivers are working waterways rather than places to swim. In summer, people cool off in hotel pools and at hot-spring resorts.

Shenzhen has real sand, though not on the doorstep. Xichong, Dameisha and Xiaomeisha line the Dapeng peninsula an hour or more from the centre, and the water is warm through summer and early autumn. It makes a good beach day rather than a beach vacation, and typhoons can cut the season short.

Chongqing is a food destination in its own right. Its hotpot in beef-tallow broth, xiaomian for breakfast, chicken buried in chillies and skewers come from hillside kitchens that cook well past midnight. The catch is that almost everything is spicy, and there is little international or high-end cooking.

Shenzhen offers a wider range but less character of its own. People from across China have brought dim sum, Chaoshan beef hotpot, Hakka and northern cooking, and Nan'ao and Shekou add seafood picked from tanks. Good meals tend to be in malls and residential streets rather than old eating quarters. That makes it the easier city for a mixed group, though not the more memorable one.

Neither city is a great historic capital, but Chongqing has more to see. Its towers stacked on ridges, the monorail running through buildings and the lit-up peninsula at night are a sight in themselves. The Three Gorges Museum, Luohan Temple, Huguang Guild Hall and the wartime-capital sites, including the Stilwell Museum, fill two or three days.

Shenzhen's history is short, from fishing villages to skyline within living memory, so its landmarks are the Ping An tower, Civic Centre and the converted factories of OCT Loft. Nantou old town, Dapeng Fortress and the Hakka walled village at Crane Lake add older layers, but they are scattered and take effort to reach.

Chongqing's nights are lived on the street. They start with river views and the cable car, then move to hotpot and skewers until past 2am, and Jiefangbei and the promenades stay full late. Jiujie in Jiangbei has the big table-service clubs, and the crowd is almost entirely local.

Shenzhen keeps its nights in a few clusters far apart: clubs around Coco Park, relaxed pubs and terraces in Shekou, and arts bars in OCT, along with private KTV rooms. A foreign visitor may feel more at home in Shekou than anywhere in Chongqing, but there is little life on the streets between venues.

The two are well matched outdoors, but the settings differ. Chongqing is river and mountain country. Nanshan's forest paths look back at the centre across the Yangtze, and further out are Wulong's natural bridges and sinkholes and the cruises through the Three Gorges.

Shenzhen's best walking is by the sea. The Dapeng coastal trail runs between headlands and coves, there is kayaking off the eastern shore, and waders gather in winter at the mangrove reserve on Shenzhen Bay. Apart from Wutong Mountain, its hills are gentler.

Shenzhen is very well placed for day trips. Hong Kong is less than half an hour away by fast train, Guangzhou and Foshan are close behind, and Macau is reached by ferry or the delta bridge. That puts three very different cities within a day, although Hong Kong and Macau need the right visa arrangements to get back into the mainland.

Chongqing has fewer outings, but good ones. Chengdu and its pandas are about an hour away by high-speed train, and the Dazu Rock Carvings are among the finest Buddhist cliff carvings in China. Old stilt-house towns such as Zhongshan and Laitan give a quieter look at the region.

Shenzhen is the easier city with children. The theme parks of Overseas Chinese Town, the Safari Park, and the marine park and beach at Xiaomeisha give plenty of choice. Lifts in the metro and nursing rooms in the malls make the days smoother.

Chongqing has pandas at its zoo and a science museum in Jiangbei, and the cable car and monorail are rides in themselves. But it is a city of stairs and steep lanes where a pushchair is a burden, and at almost every meal you will need to ask for milder food.

Both cities have large, cheap rail networks with English signs, and neither needs a car. Shenzhen's is the simpler to use: the ground is flat, the metro runs to the airport, the border and the theme parks, and shared bikes line the waterfront. Its drawback is distance, as the city stretches about 80km from end to end.

Chongqing's problem is height. Long stairways, lifts that drop twenty floors and streets on several levels confuse map apps. Cable cars, escalators and cheap taxis help you get across the ridges.

Chongqing's shopping is mall streets and things to eat. The pedestrian streets around Jiefangbei and the Guanyinqiao district in Jiangbei are lined with department stores carrying international and luxury brands, much as in any large Chinese city. The souvenirs worth carrying home are packs of hotpot base, Sichuan pepper and spicy snacks, with a few trinkets in Ciqikou and the old towns.

Shenzhen has stranger and more memorable places to browse. Huaqiangbei's multi-storey markets of phones, drones and components, the tailors and fabric sellers of Luohu Commercial City and Dafen's canvases sold by the metre are worth a look even if you buy nothing. Its polished malls in Futian and Nanshan are much like Chongqing's, and independent boutiques and traditional crafts are scarce in both cities.

Both are good value, but money goes further in Chongqing. Noodle breakfasts, skewers and hotpot cost little, and even upscale hotels are much cheaper than in the coastal cities. The costs that add up are Yangtze cruises, cable cars and paid viewpoints.

Shenzhen is one of the pricier cities in mainland China, though everyday meals and the metro stay cheap. Spending rises in the bars of Shekou and Coco Park, at the theme parks and in the hotels on Shenzhen Bay.

Neither city is worth a trip for its stages. Both have a symphony orchestra and a large modern theatre with touring ballet and concerts. The difference lies in what is local.

Chongqing has Sichuan opera, whose face-changing and fire-spitting make a memorable evening even if you speak no Chinese. Shenzhen has no stage tradition of its own to show, but a few live houses around OCT Loft and Nanshan put on Chinese indie and rock bands.

It is easier to relax in Shenzhen. Its huge bathhouses run through the night, with hot and cold pools, saunas, sleeping halls and massage on several floors, and they draw people from across the region. There are foot-massage parlours on almost every block, and the parks and the Shenzhen Bay waterfront are calm early in the morning.

Chongqing's strength is older: thermal springs at Beiwenquan, Nanwenquan and Dongquan that have been used for centuries, with outdoor pools in wooded valleys. They mean a trip to the edge of a dense, steep, noisy city. A late foot massage after hotpot is much closer to hand.