Hangzhou or Hong Kong?

Hong Kong is the only one of the two where you can fit a swim into an ordinary day. Hangzhou's estuary is brown and tidal and West Lake is for boating, so the closest bathing is in a few designated areas of Qiandao Lake, around two hours away and only in summer.

Hong Kong has Repulse Bay and Deep Water Bay a short bus ride from Central, village-style beaches at Shek O, longer sand at Cheung Sha on Lantau and clearer water in Sai Kung. Most have lifeguards and shark nets in season. Even so, the beaches are an afternoon away from the city rather than a reason to book.

Both are serious Chinese food cities with very different kitchens. Hangzhou cooking is delicate and slightly sweet: West Lake fish in vinegar sauce, Dongpo pork and shrimp with Longjing tea, with spring tea drunk in the villages where it grows. The range is narrower, though, and there is little fiery food or international choice.

Hong Kong goes further and wider. You get Cantonese dim sum, roast goose and wonton noodles, the cha chaan teng diners with their milk tea, and seafood picked live in Sai Kung or on Lamma. It also has acclaimed Chinese and French dining rooms in Central, so eating can fill a whole trip here in a way it rarely does in Hangzhou.

Hangzhou has the deeper heritage. West Lake, with its causeways and pagodas, is a landscape that shaped how all of East Asia imagined scenery. Lingyin Temple and the Feilai Feng carvings, the silk and tea museums and the Neolithic site of Liangzhu give a sense of long history that Hong Kong can't match.

Hong Kong's main sight is its modern self: the harbour skyline from the Peak, the trams and the dense Kowloon tenements. Its best institutions are M+ and the Palace Museum in West Kowloon. Neither city has an intact old town, but in Hong Kong the older layers survive in scattered fragments such as Man Mo Temple.

Hong Kong is the place for a night out. Lan Kwai Fong fills with street crowds at weekends, Soho and Sheung Wan take cocktails seriously, Wan Chai runs into the early hours and rooftop bars face the harbour. Drinks are expensive, though, and clubs are not its strength.

In Hangzhou, a typical evening is a walk along the lit-up lakeshore and a drink on a terrace around Hubin, with craft beer and karaoke for the younger crowd. Locals who want a big night tend to go to Shanghai.

Both cities have green hills on their doorstep, but Hong Kong's are wilder. Dragon's Back, the sunrise climb up Lantau Peak, the MacLehose Trail and Sai Kung's volcanic columns and sea caves are all reachable by public transport, and you can explore by kayak as well as on foot.

Hangzhou's outdoors is gentler and more cultivated. You walk through tea terraces at Longjing and the Nine Creeks valley, cycle the causeways and take a boat through the Xixi wetland, with Moganshan's bamboo hills an hour away. In both places autumn is the walking season.

Hangzhou has more within easy reach. Shaoxing is under half an hour by train, Shanghai about an hour and Suzhou's gardens a little further. The canal water towns of Wuzhen, Xitang and Nanxun are about an hour by road, so you could take a different day trip every day of a week.

From Hong Kong, the classic trips are Macau, Guangzhou and the outlying islands such as Cheung Chau, Lamma and Tai O. These are rewarding, but mainland trips involve a border crossing, so check the entry rules for your passport.

Hong Kong is the easier city with children. Disneyland and Ocean Park are both on the doorstep, and the Peak Tram, Star Ferry and Ngong Ping cable car turn getting around into an outing. English is widely understood. The usual drawback is a small hotel room.

Hangzhou has its own pleasures, including pedal boats on West Lake, an aquarium with beluga whales and a Song-dynasty theme park. But little English is spoken, and the lake shore gets very crowded during festival weeks. Shanghai Disneyland is a long day out from Hangzhou.

Hong Kong is one of the easiest cities in the world to get around. The MTR, buses, trams and ferries all take one stored-value card, distances are short, and covered walkways and the Mid-Levels escalator help on steep, humid days.

Hangzhou's metro is modern and reaches the airport, but its sights are spread around a large lake and into the hills. Most days therefore mean shared bikes, taxis or ride-hailing as well. Little English is used away from the metro, and since daily life runs on mobile payment apps, set them up before you go.

Hangzhou suits a shopper who knows what they want more than one who likes to browse. The things worth carrying home are what the region itself produces: silk from the specialist shops, and Longjing tea bought in the hill villages, where it is best after the spring picking. Beyond that, Wulin's malls and the department stores by the lake are much like those of any wealthy Chinese city. The rebuilt lanes around Hefang Street lean towards souvenirs, and independent design is hard to find.

Hong Kong makes shopping a way of seeing the city. Away from the luxury streets of Central and Canton Road there are the bird, flower and goldfish markets in Mong Kok, Sham Shui Po's lanes of fabric and electronic parts, tailors in Tsim Sha Tsui who cut clothes to measure during a short stay, and young designers in Sheung Wan and at PMQ. For range and for the pleasure of the hunt, Hangzhou offers nothing close.

Hangzhou makes a budget stretch much further. A bowl of noodles, a metro ride or a taxi across town costs little, the lake shore and most hill paths are free, and entry to the temples and museums is modest. The expense gathers by the water, in the luxury hotels on the shore, banquet dining on the lake and set tea ceremonies. Room rates also rise sharply during the national festival weeks, so a hotel a few streets inland is the easy saving.

Hong Kong is far dearer, and most of the gap is the bed. A cramped room there can cost more than a spacious one in Hangzhou, and a cocktail or a harbour-view dinner in Central is priced as it would be in London or New York. Once the room is paid for, the days themselves need not be costly. The Star Ferry is close to free, buses and the MTR are cheap, cha chaan teng diners and neighbourhood dim sum are good value, and the trails and the waterfront cost nothing.

Hong Kong has a slight edge. The Hong Kong Philharmonic plays at the harbourside Cultural Centre, Cantonese opera is staged at the Xiqu Centre and at village bamboo theatres, and the annual Arts Festival brings in visiting companies.

Hangzhou is better known for spectacle than repertoire. Its highlights are the evening show staged on the surface of West Lake and the Song-dynasty extravaganzas at the theme parks. Both cities have a regional opera, Yue in Hangzhou and Cantonese in Hong Kong, that is hard to follow without the language.

Hangzhou is the more restful place to stay. A slower way of life is part of its character: tai chi and water calligraphy by the lake at dawn, unhurried afternoons in tea houses in the hills, and retreat hotels with spas in the tea valleys.

Hong Kong moves fast, and to find calm you have to leave the city for Lamma, Cheung Chau or Ngong Ping. What it does well is pampering, with foot reflexology on almost every Kowloon block, traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and very polished hotel spas.