Guilin or Shenzhen?

Neither is a beach destination in the usual sense, but only Shenzhen has the sea. The Dapeng peninsula gives it real sand. Xichong is the best of the beaches, while Dameisha and Xiaomeisha get crowded on summer weekends, and all of them are an hour or more from the centre.

Guilin lies far inland. On a hot day, cooling off means wading in the Yulong or Li rivers near Yangshuo, or using a hotel pool.

Shenzhen offers more variety. Its people came from all over China, so one city gives you Cantonese dim sum, Chaoshan beef hotpot, Hakka salt-baked chicken, Sichuan and Hunan heat and northern dumplings. There is also seafood picked from tanks at Nan'ao and Shekou, and international food in Shekou and OCT.

Guilin's food is narrower but more local: a breakfast bowl of mifen rice noodles with fermented chilli sauce, river snails, and beer fish in Yangshuo. Beyond those dishes the choice soon runs out, and many places near the sights cater to tour groups.

Neither city has many sights, and a couple of days covers either. The difference is in kind. Guilin's sights are its karst hills and caves turned into parks, from Elephant Trunk Hill to Reed Flute Cave. It also has a genuine Ming palace complex in the Jingjiang Princes' City and centuries of calligraphy carved into the rock at Longyin Cave.

Shenzhen tells a story of modern growth, through its skyline, the Shenzhen Museum and the galleries of OCT Loft. Its older traces are at Nantou old town, Dapeng Fortress and the Hakka walled villages, and these take time to reach.

Shenzhen gives you more of a night out, though not a memorable one. Coco Park has big clubs, Shekou has relaxed pubs and craft beer, and OCT has smaller bars with an arts crowd, though these areas are far apart.

In Guilin, an evening usually means strolling round the lit-up lakes and eating skewers near Zhengyang Street. The loud bar strip on West Street in Yangshuo is the only real late-night option.

This is Guilin's great advantage. The karst peaks lining the Li River between Guilin and Yangshuo are one of China's classic landscapes. You can see them from the four-hour river cruise, a bamboo raft on the Yulong, a bicycle or a climbing rope, and the Longji rice terraces are a couple of hours north.

Shenzhen's outdoors is pleasant rather than memorable. You can climb Wutong Mountain, follow the coastal trail on the Dapeng peninsula, or take the Shenzhen Bay path past mangroves where wading birds feed in winter.

Shenzhen's location gives it the stronger list. Hong Kong is under half an hour away by fast train and Guangzhou about the same, while Macau is reached by ferry or the delta bridge. Whole other cities fit into a day, as long as your visa allows you back into the mainland.

Guilin's outings are rural: Yangshuo, the old river villages of Xingping and Daxu, the ancient Lingqu Canal at Xing'an and the Zhuang and Yao villages among the terraces. They show much the same landscape as Guilin itself, so they offer less of a change of scene.

For children, Guilin's best moments are outdoors. They will enjoy the river cruise, a bamboo raft on the Yulong and the coloured caves, and older children can cycle the flat lanes near Yangshuo. There is no major zoo, aquarium or theme park in the city, and little English is spoken, so most families do best with a driver booked in advance.

Shenzhen is the easier city with children. The OCT parks, from Happy Valley's roller coasters to the miniatures at Window of the World, can fill several days, and the Safari Park and the marine park at Xiaomeisha add more. Lifts in the metro and nursing rooms in the malls help with small children, but the attractions are far apart.

Shenzhen's bilingual metro reaches the airport, the theme parks, the border crossings and the high-speed stations, so getting around is easy. The catch is distance: the Dapeng beaches are most of a morning away from Shekou.

Guilin is the reverse. Its centre around the rivers and lakes is compact and easy to walk, but there is no metro, buses are signed mostly in Chinese, and the countryside means a train, a boat or a car and driver. In both cities, mobile payment apps are close to essential.

Shenzhen is the place to shop, above all for things you will not find elsewhere. There are the electronics markets of Huaqiangbei, the tailors and fabric sellers at Luohu Commercial City and the painted canvases of Dafen, plus large malls in Futian and Nanshan.

Guilin has chain stores on Zhengyang Street and souvenir stalls on West Street in Yangshuo. The things worth taking home are food, drink and handmade crafts: chilli sauce, osmanthus tea, Sanhua rice liquor and Zhuang and Yao brocade.

Both are good value by Western standards, but Guilin is the cheaper of the two. Noodles, taxis, trains and Yangshuo guesthouses cost very little, and the main expense is entry to the river cruise, the caves and the hill parks.

Shenzhen is one of the pricier cities in mainland China, but modern hotels, the metro and meals in ordinary neighbourhoods are still cheap. Costs go up at the theme parks, in the bars of Shekou and Coco Park and in the luxury hotels on Shenzhen Bay.

Neither city is worth planning a trip around for its shows, but Shenzhen has a regular programme. Its symphony orchestra plays at the Shenzhen Concert Hall, the Poly Theatre and Grand Theatre host touring ballet and musicals, and small venues around OCT Loft put on indie bands.

What Guilin offers is spectacle, above all Impression Liu Sanjie, staged on the Li River at Yangshuo with the lit-up peaks behind. There are also acrobatic shows and the occasional evening of Gui opera.

Shenzhen has a real culture of relaxation. Its huge bathhouse complexes stay open through the night with pools, saunas, sleeping halls and massage rooms, foot-massage parlours stand on almost every block, and hot-spring resorts lie in the hills around the city.

Guilin also has cheap massage and hot springs at Longsheng, two hours away. Its best rest, though, is in the countryside outside Yangshuo, where guesthouses among the rice fields set a slow pace of cycling, tea and early nights.