Kathmandu or Lijiang?

Neither city has anywhere to swim outdoors. In Kathmandu the cold hill rivers a few hours out are for rafting, and a hotel pool is the only place to get wet. In Lijiang even pools are scarce, and Lashi Lake and the mountain lakes are for boating or birdwatching, not a dip.

Kathmandu eats better. Newari cooking gives it a local table you won't find elsewhere: buffalo choila, bara pancakes and yomari dumplings with rice beer, in small places around the old bazaars and in Patan. Momos are sold on every corner, and the Tibetan quarter at Boudhanath adds thukpa and butter tea.

Lijiang's Naxi and Yunnan food is good but narrower: baba flatbread, black-goat hotpot and wild mushrooms in the summer rains. The Old Town lanes repeat one tourist menu, so the better meals are outside the walls. Fine dining is scarce in both cities.

This is where the two differ most. Kathmandu's heritage is still in use: the temples of Durbar Square stand among working markets, pilgrims circle Boudhanath, and cremations take place openly at Pashupatinath. Patan adds a second royal square and the museum that best explains Newari bronze and woodwork, and the lanes of Asan hide courtyard shrines between the landmarks.

Lijiang's Dayan Old Town is a lovely setting of canals and grey-tiled roofs, and the Dongba script at Black Dragon Pool and the murals at Baisha are genuinely unusual. But much of the town was rebuilt after the 1996 earthquake and given over to shops and inns, and two or three days are enough to see it.

Lijiang has a little more going on after dark, though it is all much the same. The canal-side strip of the Old Town stays packed past midnight, with singers, drums and loud sound systems pulling in domestic tour groups and young travellers. Kathmandu's evenings centre on Thamel, where rooftop bars, pool halls and a handful of dance clubs fill with trekkers and mostly close around midnight. In short, it is a loud single strip against a friendly backpacker quarter, and neither is a serious place for clubbing or cocktails.

Lijiang's mountains are closer and give you more to do. Jade Dragon Snow Mountain stands about 30km from town, with cable cars up to the glaciers and Blue Moon Valley below. Tiger Leaping Gorge offers a two-day high trail between two snow peaks, and Lashi Lake has wetland birds and horse trails nearer town.

In Kathmandu the Himalaya are mostly something to look at from the valley rim, at Nagarkot, Dhulikhel or Chandragiri, or from a mountain flight. Shivapuri's oak and rhododendron forest is on the doorstep, though, and the city is the gateway to Langtang and longer treks.

Kathmandu has one outstanding day out: Bhaktapur, with Changu Narayan on the ridge above. After that come smaller Newari villages and shrines that repeat the same theme, and traffic slows every outing.

Lijiang offers more contrast. Trains reach Dali's walled town on Erhai Lake and the Tibetan monastery and old quarter at Shangri-La in under two hours. Shuhe, Baisha and the first bend of the Yangtze at Shigu are short drives away.

Neither is an easy city for families, but Lijiang is the gentler of the two. Its Old Town is free of cars, with streams to follow, flatbreads to snack on and a mild climate. The altitude rules out the snow mountain trips with young children, though, and the uneven stone paving is hard going with a pushchair.

Kathmandu has its moments, such as the monkeys at Swayambhunath and the prayer wheels at Boudhanath. But traffic, lanes without pavements, dust and the care needed with food and water make it tiring with small children. It works better with older children on their way to a trek.

Lijiang is the easier of the two to get about, mainly because its Old Town is closed to traffic and small enough to cross on foot. Trains to Dali and Shangri-La leave from a station outside the centre. There is no metro in either city, so beyond the old quarters both rely on taxis and ride-hailing apps.

In Kathmandu the old city and Thamel are walkable, but you share the lanes with motorbikes, the pavements come and go, and the minibuses are hard for a visitor to work out. Crossing to Patan, Boudhanath or the airport can get stuck in traffic. Lijiang's drawback is distance. The snow mountain, Baisha and Tiger Leaping Gorge are spread across the valley and beyond, so a driver hired for the day is often the simplest option, and the ride-hailing apps need a Chinese payment setup.

Kathmandu is the better place to buy craft, and each quarter has its own speciality. You'll find Tibetan carpets and thangkas around Boudhanath, bronzes cast in Patan's own workshops, and pashmina and trekking gear in Thamel, with bargaining expected everywhere.

Lijiang's Old Town is one long row of shops, but the drums, silver and Dongba-painted carvings repeat from lane to lane. Pu'er tea is the purchase most worth taking home. Neither city has any fashion shopping.

Both are cheap day to day, but Kathmandu is cheaper still. Guesthouses, dal bhat and taxis cost very little, and the big outlays are treks and mountain flights rather than life in the city.

Lijiang's everyday costs are also low, but its sights add up: the Old Town entry fee, the snow mountain's cable cars and shuttle buses, and high restaurant bills on the main lanes. Its inns also fill up during national festival weeks.

Neither has a theatre or classical scene, so the difference lies in what kind of performance you can see. Lijiang has one concert worth planning an evening around: Naxi ancient music, a Taoist ritual repertoire kept alive by older musicians. It also has polished song-and-dance shows aimed at tour groups.

Kathmandu's best performances belong to the religious calendar, with masked dances at Indra Jatra and evening singing in the temples. Beyond those there are rock and folk covers in Thamel bars and an autumn jazz festival.

Kathmandu is the place for the mind. Kopan and the other monasteries above Boudhanath teach meditation and Buddhist philosophy, and yoga, Ayurvedic treatments and cheap massage are easy to find, even if the city around them is loud and dusty. Lijiang offers a simpler kind of rest, over tea in a sunny courtyard inn in Shuhe or Baisha, and its spas are limited to hotel spas and foot-massage shops.