Shanghai or Beijing?

Neither city is a place for the beach, and both leave swimming to hotel pools. The difference is in what lies beyond. From Beijing, a fast train takes about two hours to the open Bohai Sea at Beidaihe, which is shallow and crowded. Shanghai's nearest option is Jinshan, a filtered bay behind a sea wall with an industrial backdrop. It is a little closer, but it is a man-made bay rather than open sea.

Both cities are excellent for food, and Shanghai goes further. Beijing's kitchen is northern and hearty: roast duck carved at the table, hand-pulled noodles, lamb skewers and winter hotpot. Its standout is regional cooking from the provincial government office restaurants.

Shanghai adds its own sweet, soy-braised benbang cooking, soup dumplings and autumn hairy crab. It also has a deeper international and fine-dining scene, and a real coffee and café culture in the former French Concession, where Beijing is firmly a city of tea.

Beijing is far ahead here. The Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace and the Confucius Temple sit on or near the old imperial axis, and the hutongs around Shichahai still show courtyard life. It is a city of monuments, although each one takes half a day.

Shanghai's story is a different one, of trading houses and Art Deco banks along the Bund and shikumen lane houses in the former French Concession, with the Shanghai Museum's bronzes as the high point. Its classical temples and gardens are few, and most of that heritage lies outside the city.

Shanghai is the better city for a night out. Its speakeasies behind unmarked doors, hotel bars looking over the lit-up Pudong towers and techno rooms that run until dawn at weekends give it real range.

Beijing's nights centre on Sanlitun's clubs and taprooms, with quieter courtyard and rooftop bars around Gulou and karaoke-heavy lakeside bars at Houhai. It is enjoyable, but it is more scattered and has less life on the street.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Beijing has real mountains on its doorstep. You can hike the wild ridges of the Yanshan between Great Wall watchtowers, see the Fragrant Hills turn red in autumn, climb or raft in the Shidu gorges and ski at Yanqing in winter. Smog and dusty springs sometimes spoil the view.

Shanghai sits on the flat Yangtze delta, so its outdoors means Century Park, cycling along the Huangpu and birdwatching on Chongming Island. Proper hiking means a trip of more than a day to Moganshan or Anhui.

Both make superb bases, but the trips are different in kind. Beijing's are about monuments: Great Wall sections from restored Mutianyu to steep Jinshanling, the Ming and Qing tombs, and the summer palace and temples at Chengde. The Wall usually means a hired driver.

Shanghai's high-speed trains reach whole cities instead. You can see the gardens of Suzhou, West Lake in Hangzhou and the Ming walls of Nanjing, or ride a boat through canal towns such as Zhujiajiao and Wuzhen.

Shanghai is the easier city with children. Disney is on the metro, Legoland and an ocean park add more big days out, and the metro's lifts make a buggy manageable.

Beijing has strong draws of its own, including Universal's theme park, the pandas at the zoo and the toboggan down from Mutianyu. But its vast sights, long transfers, harsh winters and variable air make days harder on small children.

Both have enormous, cheap metros signed in English, and both run on mobile payment, but Shanghai is the smoother city. It has lifts at most stations, the Maglev from Pudong airport and ferries across the Huangpu as a scenic shortcut, and the Bund and the former French Concession are good on foot.

Beijing's ring-road layout means long walks between lines, bag checks at every station and avenues too wide for pleasant walking outside the hutong quarters.

Shanghai has more to offer, especially in independent style. Chinese designer fashion and ceramics fill the boutiques on Wukang and Anfu roads, fabric markets tailor a qipao in days, and luxury flagships line West Nanjing Road.

Beijing's malls are just as international, but its real strength is older trade: dawn browsing for porcelain and jade at Panjiayuan, and brushes, ink and paper along Liulichang.

Beijing is somewhat easier on the budget. In both cities, local noodles, dumplings, the metro and taxis cost little. The gap comes with comfort: central hotels around the Bund and Jing'an are priced like a European capital's, and Shanghai's cocktail culture costs as much as in the West. Beijing's main extra costs are the famous duck restaurants and drivers to the Wall.

The two are evenly matched, with different strengths. Beijing is the home of Peking opera, staged every night in historic guild halls in short subtitled programmes, and the dome of the National Centre for the Performing Arts hosts the big seasons. Its small venues around Gulou are the place for local rock and punk.

Shanghai offers more variety in Chinese opera, with Kunqu and Yue opera alongside Peking opera at the 1920s Yifu Theatre. It also has a jazz heritage from the 1930s and touring musicals, often in English.

Neither is a restful city, and both share the same remedies: round-the-clock bathhouses, foot-massage parlours, acupuncture and morning tai chi. Beijing adds the hot springs at Xiaotangshan and tea in hutong teahouses, though traffic and air quality work against relaxing. Shanghai's calm comes from luxury hotel spas and the shaded lanes of the former French Concession.