Lijiang or Zhangjiajie?

Neither city is a place to swim, as both lie deep in the mountains far from any coast. Lijiang's lakes sit at plateau altitude and are too cold for anyone to get in. Zhangjiajie at least has summer rafting in its gorges, the closest either comes to a day in the water, and a hotel pool is more realistic there than in Lijiang, where few hotels have one.

Both are good places to eat rather than reasons to travel, and the difference is in heat. Lijiang's Naxi cooking is mild and hearty: baba flatbread, yak meat, black-goat hotpot, wild mushrooms in the summer rains, and plenty of Pu'er tea in courtyard cafés.

Zhangjiajie cooks with the chilli, sourness and wood smoke of western Hunan. Sanxiaguo stew simmers at the table and comes with cured bacon and a strong rice wine, so it suits people who like spicy food. In both places the better meals are away from the tourist core, outside Lijiang's Old Town walls and in Zhangjiajie's evening food streets rather than by the Wulingyuan park gates.

Lijiang offers far more culture. Dayan's Naxi lanes and canals, the Mu Family Mansion, the Dongba script at Black Dragon Pool and the Ming murals of Baisha fill two or three days, even if the rebuilt Old Town can feel staged.

Zhangjiajie's sights in town, Puguang Temple and a Tujia folk-customs park, take half a day, and the rest of the city is modern and plain. Its heritage lies further out, so culture there comes on day trips rather than on the doorstep.

Lijiang's evenings are famous across China. The canal-side strip of the Old Town stays loud and crowded past midnight, with singers and drummers in open-fronted bars, and quieter courtyard bars sit further back and in Shuhe. It has no real clubs, but there is always somewhere to go.

Zhangjiajie goes to bed early because its visitors get up at dawn for the parks. A beer by the river, karaoke or a night-food street is about all there is, and Wulingyuan is quieter still.

Both are top-class mountain destinations, but Zhangjiajie's landscape is the more remarkable. The misted sandstone pillars of Wulingyuan, with macaques beside the paths, and the arch of Heaven's Gate on Tianmen Mountain right above the city are scenery you will not see anywhere else.

Lijiang offers altitude and glaciers instead. Cable cars climb Jade Dragon Snow Mountain to around 4,500m, and the two-day high trail through Tiger Leaping Gorge is a more serious walk than Zhangjiajie's paved steps. In both places the main sights are managed and heavily visited, so the quiet comes from setting out early.

Lijiang is better placed for outings. Trains reach Dali in under two hours and Shangri-La in about an hour and a half, so one base gives you both a Bai old town by Erhai Lake and a Tibetan monastery. Shuhe, Baisha and the first bend of the Yangtze at Shigu are close by.

Zhangjiajie has one outstanding trip, Fenghuang, an hour away by high-speed train, plus the cliff-top village of Furong Town and the Tujia ruins of Laosicheng. Beyond those, most of what lies within reach is more mountain scenery.

Zhangjiajie gives children more to remember: cable cars over cliffs, glass walkways, the lift up the rock face and macaques beside the path, most of it without hard hiking. Older children get the most from it, because the steps, queues and summer heat wear out small ones.

Lijiang's car-free Old Town, with its streams and flatbread snacks, is pleasant for a day or two, but there is little else aimed at children. The town already sits at around 2,400m, and the snow mountain goes far higher, which rules out the main excursion with young children.

Neither is easy, and for the same reason: the main sights are spread out. Lijiang's Old Town is car-free and walkable, but there is no rail transit and the buses are hard to use without Chinese, so taxis or a hired driver are needed for the mountain, the lake and the gorge.

Zhangjiajie has public buses linking the city, the high-speed rail station and Wulingyuan, about 30km away, and free shuttles inside the park, although the signs are mostly in Chinese and the queues are long. Most visitors there split their stay between Wulingyuan and the city.

Lijiang has more to browse. Nearly every Old Town house is a shop selling silver, scarves, hand drums and Dongba-painted woodwork, and the Pu'er tea is a genuinely good buy, even though much of the stock repeats from lane to lane. Zhangjiajie offers souvenirs and mountain produce near the park gates, and its Tujia xilankapu brocade and Miao silver are the pieces worth looking for, but neither city has any real fashion or design shopping.

Both are cheap day to day, with low-cost rooms, meals and taxis, and in both the tickets take most of the budget. In Lijiang that means the Old Town entry fee, the snow mountain's cable cars and shuttles, and inflated prices on the main lanes. In Zhangjiajie the forest park pass, the Tianmen cable car, the glass bridges and the lifts are each paid for separately, which adds up quickly if you visit several scenic areas.

Lijiang has something Zhangjiajie lacks, a living musical tradition. The Naxi ancient music concerts in the Old Town, Taoist ritual tunes kept alive by older musicians, are worth an evening.

Otherwise the two are alike. Each stages large folklore spectacles for tour groups, Lijiang's with the snow mountain behind and Zhangjiajie's beneath Tianmen's cliffs. Neither has a theatre, classical or jazz scene.

Lijiang is the easier place to unwind. Spas are few, so the rest comes from the pace, with long mornings over tea in a sunny courtyard inn in Shuhe or Baisha. Zhangjiajie is a place of early starts and thousands of steps, where recovery means a foot massage after the trails or a trip to the hot-spring resorts outside town.