Shanghai or Suzhou?

Neither city is a place to swim, and there is little between them. Shanghai at least has Jinshan City Beach, a filtered bay behind a sea wall about an hour and a half away, though the setting is industrial. Suzhou has only its canals and Lake Tai, and nobody swims in either, so in both cities the hotel pool is the realistic answer in summer.

Shanghai is the stronger food city by some way. It has its own benbang cooking, with soup dumplings and shengjian buns, plus food from every Chinese region from Sichuan to Xinjiang, a deep international scene and serious fine dining. Cafés and bistros fill the former French Concession.

Suzhou's cooking has a narrower range but real finesse. It is built on freshwater fish and shrimp from the lakes, with squirrel-shaped mandarin fish as the showpiece and a bowl of Suzhou noodles in dark broth for breakfast. Both cities share the autumn hairy crab, Suzhou's coming from Yangcheng Lake, but Suzhou has little foreign food outside its business district.

Suzhou has the deeper classical heritage. Its UNESCO-listed gardens, including the Humble Administrator's Garden, the Lingering Garden, the Master of the Nets and the Lion Grove, all lie in or near the old moat. Around them are Tiger Hill's leaning pagoda, the Panmen water gate and canal streets such as Pingjiang Road, and I. M. Pei's Suzhou Museum adds a modern landmark.

Shanghai's sights come from its treaty-port century instead: the Bund facing the Lujiazui towers, and the villas and shikumen lane houses of the former French Concession. The Shanghai Museum holds some of China's finest bronzes and ceramics. Older sights such as Yu Garden are few, and that is exactly the gap Suzhou fills.

Shanghai has a real night out and Suzhou mostly does not. In Shanghai that means speakeasies in the former French Concession and hotel bars above the Bund looking across at Pudong. The clubs range from polished venues to underground techno rooms, and the busiest run until dawn at weekends.

A Suzhou evening is a lit canal walk on Pingjiang Road or Shantang Street and a drink by the water, perhaps in the small bars of Shiquan Street or a rooftop lounge at Jinji Lake. Little stays open late, and people who want more take the train to Shanghai.

Neither city has mountains, but Suzhou has more countryside close by. Lake Tai lies to the west, with orchards and tea terraces on the Dongshan and Xishan peninsulas and lakeside roads made for cycling. Lingyan Hill and Tianping Hill are short climbs with temple views and maples in autumn.

Shanghai's outdoors is mostly parks and riverbank: Century Park, the Huangpu paths along the West Bund, the low Sheshan hills and the Dongtan wetlands on Chongming Island for birdwatching. Real hiking means a longer trip into Zhejiang.

Both are excellent bases on the same high-speed rail network, so the real difference is which places come closest. From Shanghai, Suzhou is half an hour away and Hangzhou about an hour. From Suzhou, Nanjing comes nearer at about an hour, and the gardens of Yangzhou are within reach.

The canal water towns are shared too. Zhouzhuang, Tongli, Xitang and Wuzhen can be reached from either city, Shanghai has Zhujiajiao inside its own boundaries, and Luzhi is under an hour from Suzhou. Whichever base you choose, go on a weekday to avoid the crowds.

Shanghai is the easier city with children because it has whole days built for them. Shanghai Disney Resort is on the metro, Haichang Ocean Park and Legoland are on the city's edges, and there is a hands-on science museum and an aquarium below the Pudong towers.

Suzhou's main sights, its gardens, are narrow and contemplative, and young children tire of them quickly. Canal boat rides, the lakeside parks around Jinji Lake and the amusement parks west of the old town go down better. Both cities share the same hot summers and festival-week crowds.

Shanghai's metro is one of the largest anywhere, running to both airports, the railway stations and Disneyland, and the ferries across the Huangpu make a scenic shortcut. The city is so spread out, though, that trips between areas often take a good half hour. Suzhou's metro is clean and signed in English but covers less, so Tiger Hill or the Lake Tai shore is easier by taxi.

Suzhou's advantage is its old town inside the moat, which is compact enough to walk or cycle between gardens on a shared bike. In both cities, set up mobile payments before you arrive.

Shanghai covers the whole range, from luxury flagships on West Nanjing Road and in Lujiazui to Chinese designer boutiques on Wukang Road and fabric markets that make a qipao in a few days. Suzhou's range is narrower but it does one thing properly: silk and embroidery, with fine double-sided pieces stitched in the workshops of Zhenhu village and silk sold along Guanqian Street. For fashion beyond that, Suzhou's own shoppers head to Shanghai.

Suzhou is the cheaper place to stay, mainly because comfortable hotels there cost far less than good rooms near the Bund or in Jing'an, which are priced like a European capital. In both cities local food and the metro cost very little. In Suzhou the spending adds up through garden entry tickets and hairy crab dinners, while in Shanghai it is cocktails, imported wine and Western restaurants.

Shanghai has the bigger stages. There are acrobatics shows in large theatres and Peking opera at the Yifu Theatre, and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Grand Theatre and the Oriental Art Center put on ballet, opera and musicals, often in English. Jazz has roots here going back to the 1930s.

Suzhou's offer is narrower but more its own. Kunqu began here, and on summer evenings short scenes are sung in garden pavilions by lantern light, while pingtan storytelling is heard in small teahouses. Most of it is in Chinese, so visitors enjoy it as atmosphere.

The two cities offer different kinds of rest. Shanghai has large bath centres with hot pools, saunas and rest halls where people stay overnight, along with clinics for acupuncture and cupping, but the city around them moves fast.

Suzhou has no tradition of thermal bathing. Its calm comes from a garden early in the morning before the crowds, a canal-side teahouse with local green tea, and quiet resort spas by Lake Tai. Both cities have foot-massage parlours on almost every street.