Kyoto or Xi'an?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Kyoto at least has somewhere to swim within reach. In July and August the sandy strands on Lake Biwa's western shore are warm enough for a freshwater dip, and Suma on Osaka Bay is an hour away. The white sand of the Tango Peninsula needs an overnight trip.

Xi'an is far inland, so swimming means a hotel pool or one of the hot-spring resorts at Lintong. If you want the sea, you have to add a coastal city to the trip.

Both cities have a real food culture, but Kyoto's is deeper and more varied. You can eat kaiseki in old wooden houses in Gion, temple cooking at Daitokuji, and tofu, yuba and tea sweets, and on top of that come Nishiki Market, ramen counters and the sake breweries of Fushimi.

Xi'an is a wheat city with very different food: belt-wide biangbiang noodles, roujiamo and mutton paomo, and lamb skewers in the Muslim Quarter late into the evening. It is hearty, sour and spicy, but the range narrows quickly once you look beyond the local staples and the fine-dining tier is small.

Both are former imperial capitals of the first rank, and Kyoto has more of its past still standing. Seventeen UNESCO-listed sites, from Kinkaku-ji to Ryoan-ji's rock garden, sit among more than a thousand temples and shrines. Because the city escaped wartime bombing, whole lanes of machiya townhouses survive in Higashiyama and Gion, so the historic feel carries on between the landmarks.

Xi'an's heritage is older but more scattered. It has the complete Ming wall, the Tang pagodas, the Shaanxi History Museum's bronzes and murals, and the Great Mosque built as a Chinese courtyard temple. Outside the wall the city is largely modern, and some of the rebuilt streets feel staged.

Xi'an has more going on after dark. Crowds walk and snack along the floodlit boulevard below the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and through the Muslim Quarter, and the bars of Defu Xiang and a few big, loud clubs carry on from there. It is a public, early-evening kind of fun rather than late nights.

Kyoto is quieter still. Most evenings happen in the small sake bars and standing izakaya of Pontocho and Kiyamachi, with riverside terraces in summer. Anyone wanting a long, loud night takes the train to Osaka.

Kyoto's hills come right to the edge of the city. You can walk the trails up Daimonji, take the cedar path from Kurama to Kibune, see the Arashiyama bamboo or ride a boat down the Hozu gorge, and the Kamo River gives you green space through the centre. Cherry blossom and autumn maples shape when people visit.

Xi'an sits on a flat, often hazy plain with little green space in the city. Its draw is wilder country further out: the Zhongnan foothills about an hour south, and Mount Hua's sheer granite ridges and cliff paths, which make a hard and thrilling day.

Both make fine bases, but Kyoto has more within easy reach. Nara's deer and bronze Buddha, Uji's tea and Byodo-in, Osaka, Kobe and Himeji Castle are each under an hour by train, so a week can mix many short trips with little planning.

Xi'an's excursions revolve around tombs and temples. The Terracotta Army and Huaqing Palace make a natural day together, Qianling and Famen Temple lie to the west, and Luoyang's Longmen Grottoes are reachable by high-speed train. The sights are superb, but the variety is narrower.

Kyoto is the easier city with children. It is safe and orderly, and it has attractions made for them: the Railway Museum's roundhouse of steam engines, the aquarium and zoo near the centre, and ninja shows at Toei Studio Park. Osaka's theme park is close enough for a day trip. The hard parts are temple stairs, packed buses and the summer heat.

In Xi'an, cycling on the wall and the pandas at the Qinling wildlife park go down well, and the Terracotta Army holds most ages for an hour. After that the sights are aimed at adults. Traffic outside the wall and the national vacation crowds make it harder work with a buggy.

Kyoto is a little easier to get around. Its flat central grid is very good for walking and cycling, and a mix of JR, Keihan, Hankyu and the Randen tram reaches the temples around the edges of the basin. The weak point is the buses, which are slow and crowded in blossom and autumn seasons.

Xi'an's large metro, with English signage, links the walled centre, the pagodas, the stations and the airport, and Line 9 gets you most of the way to the Terracotta Army. Taxis are cheap, but rush-hour traffic is heavy and signs beyond the metro are in Chinese only.

Kyoto is the better city for buying things to keep. Family-run workshops sell Kiyomizu-ware ceramics, Nishijin silk, incense, lacquer and hand-forged knives, and the covered arcades of Teramachi and Shinkyogoku sell everything from antique prints to cheap clothes. The flea markets at To-ji and Kitano Tenmangu are worth planning a day around.

In Xi'an, Shuyuanmen lane is the place for brushes, ink stones and seals. Away from it the choice thins out into dried fruit, shadow puppets and endless replica warriors, and the malls carry the usual brands.

Xi'an is much the cheaper of the two. Street food, dumplings, metro rides and taxis cost very little, and a comfortable room inside the wall is good value. The one cost that mounts up is admission to the Terracotta Army, the wall and the palace and tomb sites.

In Kyoto, everyday meals and transport are reasonable, and so are temple entry fees. Hotels and ryokan are expensive, though, especially in cherry blossom and autumn colour season, and a kaiseki dinner is a splurge.

Kyoto has more to see on stage, and more of it is the real thing. The geiko and maiko spring dances, kabuki at the Minamiza, the oldest kabuki house in Japan, and regular Noh are living traditions, and the Kyoto Concert Hall and ROHM Theatre add symphony and opera. Much of the calendar is seasonal, though.

What most visitors see in Xi'an is staged for them: Tang dance dinner shows and the hillside spectacle at Huaqing Palace. For something more local, look for Qinqiang, the raw Shaanxi opera, in small theatres and parks.

Kyoto has a long bathing and contemplative tradition. Tiled neighbourhood sento, hot springs at Kurama, Ohara and Arashiyama, ryokan baths, zazen sessions and nights in temple lodgings all offer real rest, as long as you get to the gardens early.

Xi'an's calm comes in shorter spells. You can soak in the Tang emperors' springs at Lintong, have a cheap foot massage or spend an evening in a bathhouse rest hall, or walk the wall at dawn before the sightseeing starts again.