Chongqing or Zhangjiajie?

Neither city is anywhere near a coast, and neither has a beach or a river safe to swim in, so on this count they are level. The difference is how you cool off. In Chongqing it is hotel pools, hot-spring resorts and the odd wading spot on the river shore. In Zhangjiajie it is summer rafting through the gorges, while Baofeng Lake is for boat rides rather than swimming.

Chongqing is a destination for eating in its own right. It is the home city of hotpot, cooked in everything from pavement stalls to vast halls. Mornings start with fiery xiaomian noodles, and the riverside and hillside districts are full of small kitchens selling spicy chicken, grilled fish and skewers until well after midnight.

Zhangjiajie's western Hunan cooking is good but narrower. The best of it is sanxiaguo stew, smoky cured pork, pickled chillies and mountain mushrooms, washed down with strong rice wine. The good eating is in the city's evening food streets, because the menus around the Wulingyuan gates are built for tour groups. Both places are hard going if you avoid chilli, though Chongqing's split pots make it easier to manage.

For sightseeing, Chongqing gives you far more to fill the days. The city itself is the show: Hongyadong's stilt houses on the cliff, the peninsula lit up at night and monorails running through hillsides. Add the Three Gorges Museum, the Huguang Guild Hall, Luohan Temple and the wartime sites such as the Stilwell Museum, and that fills two or three days.

Zhangjiajie's town offers the quiet Ming-era Puguang Temple, a Tujia folk-customs park and a few rebuilt streets, which take about half a day. Its heritage lies in the Tujia villages and old towns further out.

Chongqing runs late. Evenings start with the river views and the cable car, move on to hotpot past 2am, and end in the glossy table-service clubs of Jiujie in Jiangbei or one of the scattered craft-beer bars. Expect to be out among locals rather than other tourists.

Zhangjiajie keeps hiking hours. Most people are in bed early for a dawn start in the park, so the riverside bars, karaoke parlours and night-food streets are for a beer after dinner, and Wulingyuan goes quiet even sooner.

Zhangjiajie is the one people travel across China to see. Thousands of sandstone pillars, many over 200m tall, rise out of the forest at Yuanjiajie and Tianzi Mountain, with macaques along the Golden Whip Stream. Tianmen Mountain's cable car climbs straight from the town centre to cliff walkways and the great Heaven's Gate arch, and the Grand Canyon, Yellow Dragon Cave and rafting rivers lie beyond. The paths are paved and crowded at peak times, so go early.

Chongqing's outdoors are pleasant rather than spectacular. Nanshan's forest paths and skyline lookouts are just across the Yangtze, Jinyun and Gele mountains make half-day walks, and the natural bridges of Wulong and the Three Gorges cruises are its bigger draws.

Chongqing has the wider range. Chengdu, with its teahouses and panda base, is about an hour away by high-speed train. The Dazu cliff carvings, made between the 9th and 13th centuries, are about two hours by road, and the Diaoyu Fortress recalls a Song garrison's long stand against the Mongols. Quieter stilt-house towns such as Zhongshan, Songji and Laitan fill out the list.

Zhangjiajie has fewer outings, but its best one is excellent. Fenghuang's walled riverside town on the Tuo is worth an overnight stay, and Furong Town's waterfall cliff and the UNESCO-listed Tujia ruins at Laosicheng complete a short list.

With children, Chongqing is the easier pick. There are giant pandas at the zoo, a large science museum on the Jiangbei waterfront and theme parks on the edge of the city, and the river cable car and the monorail through buildings are treats in themselves. Its layered streets and stairs are hard with a pushchair, though.

Zhangjiajie thrills older children with its glass walkways, cliff-face lift and macaques, but almost nothing there is made for them. Long queues and steep steps wear out small children, so short days built around the cable cars work best.

In Chongqing, the metro and monorail reach almost everywhere, with English signs and announcements, and cable cars, escalators and lifts deal with the slopes. The challenge is vertical. Street, bridge and building levels rarely line up, and map apps often lose track of where you are.

Zhangjiajie is spread out instead. The main forest park is about 30km from the city, the other sights are scattered beyond it, and the park's shuttle buses have mostly Chinese signs and long queues. Many visitors hire a driver and split their stay between Wulingyuan and the town.

Chongqing offers large-scale city shopping. Malls and department stores crowd the pedestrian streets around Jiefangbei and Guanyinqiao, though they stock much the same as any large Chinese city. Packs of hotpot base and Sichuan pepper make the most local souvenir.

Zhangjiajie has little beyond stalls near the park gates. The things worth buying there are Tujia xilankapu brocade, some Miao silver, tea and smoked mountain produce.

Both are cheap places to stay, eat and get around, so the difference lies in where the money goes. In Chongqing a full day of food and city sights costs little, and only extras such as Yangtze cruises, cable cars and paid viewpoints add up.

In Zhangjiajie the separately ticketed forest park, Tianmen cable car, glass bridges and lifts become the biggest cost of the trip. Rooms near the park gates also cost more during Golden Week and the Chinese New Year travel season.

Chongqing has a modest but genuine stage. Sichuan opera's face-changing and fire-spitting routines are performed in teahouse theatres, and the glass Grand Theatre on the Jiangbei waterfront hosts ballet, touring productions and the city's own symphony orchestra.

Zhangjiajie offers large staged spectacles instead, retelling Tujia and Miao folklore. The open-air show beneath Tianmen's cliffs is the most memorable of them, but there is no local theatre or music scene beyond these shows.

Chongqing gives you real ways to rest. Hot springs that have been used for centuries feed outdoor pools in wooded valleys at Beiwenquan and Nanwenquan, and cheap reflexology parlours stay open late. The city itself is noisy and steep, so you have to make time for rest.

Zhangjiajie's days are built around stone steps and crowds. Recovery there means a foot massage after the trails, a hotel spa or a drive to the countryside springs, and the calmest moments are early mornings in the lower valleys.