Hangzhou or Xi'an?

Neither city is a beach destination, and they differ only in where you can get into the water. Hangzhou's estuary is brown and tidal and West Lake is for boats, but in high summer you can swim at designated spots on Qiandao Lake, about two hours away. Xi'an is far inland, so swimming there means a hotel pool or the hot-spring resorts of Lintong. If you want sand and sea, plan a separate stretch of the trip on the coast.

Both cities eat well, but from opposite ends of Chinese cooking. Hangzhou is rice and freshwater-fish country, delicate and slightly sweet. Think West Lake fish in vinegar sauce, Dongpo pork and shrimp with Longjing leaves, often eaten at lakeside tables, with tea drunk in the villages where it grows.

Xi'an is a wheat city with bolder flavours, built on hand-pulled noodles, roujiamo and mutton soup with crumbled flatbread. Its best eating is done standing at the stalls of the Muslim Quarter. Choose Hangzhou for slower, more refined meals and Xi'an for cheap, hearty, spicy and sour food on the street.

Xi'an has more of ancient China to show. Its Ming wall survives whole and can be walked or cycled. In and around it stand the Bell and Drum Towers, the Tang-era Wild Goose Pagodas, the Forest of Steles and the Shaanxi History Museum, one of the country's finest collections.

Hangzhou's heritage is quieter and built around a landscape: West Lake with its causeways and pagodas, Lingyin Temple, the Feilai Feng carvings, and museums of silk and tea. Both cities have rebuilt streets that feel staged, but Xi'an fits more major sights into a visit.

Neither city is for a big night out, and the difference is mostly in the setting. Hangzhou's evenings centre on the lit-up lakeshore and quiet terraces around Hubin, with clubs in Wulin and karaoke for the young crowd. Xi'an's are more crowded and take place on the street, with people eating their way along the floodlit pagoda boulevard and through the Muslim Quarter before a beer on Defu Xiang. From Hangzhou, Shanghai's nightlife is only an hour away.

Hangzhou has green right on its doorstep. From the lakeshore you can walk up into the tea terraces at Longjing, the bamboo and streams of the Nine Creeks valley or the waterways of the Xixi wetland, and Moganshan is an hour out. The walking is gentle and easy to fit around sightseeing.

Xi'an sits on a flat, often hazy plain, with little green space beyond its parks and the moat gardens. The Qinling Mountains to the south are more dramatic, though: Taoist valleys in the Zhongnan foothills, and the sheer granite ridges of Mount Hua for a hard, thrilling day.

Both make strong bases, but Hangzhou has more within easy reach. Shaoxing is under half an hour away by fast train. Shanghai and the canal towns of Wuzhen, Xitang and Nanxun are about an hour, and Suzhou's classical gardens not much further.

Xi'an's outings mostly share one theme, imperial tombs and Buddhist sites: the Terracotta Army with Huaqing Palace, Qianling, Hanyangling, Famen Temple, and the Longmen Grottoes by train to Luoyang. The clay soldiers alone justify the journey, but after them the choice is narrower than Hangzhou's.

Hangzhou is the easier city with children. West Lake has pedal boats, ferries to the islands and wide paths for scooters, and there is a zoo in the hills, an aquarium with penguins and beluga whales, and theme parks with costumed Song-dynasty shows.

Xi'an has a few strong moments: cycling on the city wall, the pandas at the Qinling wildlife park and the Terracotta Army. Most of the rest is museums and tombs meant for adults, and pushing a buggy outside the walls is hard going. Both cities get very crowded during the national vacation weeks.

Getting around is about equally easy, but the cities are laid out differently. Hangzhou's sights are spread around a large lake and up into the hills, so most days mix the metro, shared bikes along the causeways and cheap taxis. Away from the metro, there is little English on signs.

Xi'an's walled centre is a compact grid you can cover on foot, and its metro has English signs and runs out to Lintong for the Terracotta Army. Rush-hour traffic there is heavy.

Hangzhou has more to buy that is truly its own: silk as fabric, scarves and qipao, Longjing tea bought straight from growers in the hill villages, and the luxury malls of Wulin. Xi'an's best buys are calligraphy brushes, ink stones and seals from Shuyuanmen lane, plus dried fruit and shadow puppets in the Muslim Quarter among a sea of replica warriors. Both have malls with international brands, but neither is a place to come for fashion.

Both are good value, but Xi'an is the cheaper of the two. Noodles and snacks cost very little and comfortable hotels inside the wall are well priced. The fees for the Terracotta Army, the wall and the tombs add up over a few days.

In Hangzhou many of the best things are free, including the lake, the causeways and the hill walks. Lakeside hotels and banquet restaurants push costs up, and staying a little back from the shore saves a good deal.

Hangzhou has a little more on stage. The evening show on the surface of West Lake and the Song-dynasty spectaculars at the theme parks are made for visitors but impressive, and the Grand Theatre hosts the city orchestra and touring ballet. Yue opera is lovely to hear but rarely surtitled.

Xi'an's offer is mostly Tang dinner shows and the hillside spectacle at Huaqing Palace. Its more rooted traditions, the loud, raw Qinqiang opera, drum music and shadow puppetry, are worth seeking out in small theatres and parks.

Hangzhou is the more restful city by some way. Its rhythm is tai chi under the willows at dawn, long afternoons in the hill tea houses and spa retreats in the tea valleys. Only the lakeshore at weekends breaks the calm.

Xi'an is a city for sightseeing first, but it has something Hangzhou lacks, a bathing culture. Tang emperors bathed in the Lintong hot springs, and in town there are cheap bathhouses with saunas and rest halls.