Shenzhen or Yangshuo?

Only Shenzhen has real sea beaches. Xichong, Dameisha and Xiaomeisha on the Dapeng peninsula are a proper day out, with warm summer water, though they are a long ride from the centre and very crowded at weekends.

Yangshuo is hundreds of kilometres inland. Its swimming happens from the gravel banks and weirs of the Yulong and in calm stretches of the Li, a pleasant way to cool off after a ride but no substitute for sand and sea.

Shenzhen eats much better because people from all over China have settled there and brought their cooking. You can have Chaoshan beef hotpot, Hakka salt-baked chicken, Sichuan heat, northern dumplings and Cantonese dim sum, and pick seafood from the tanks at Nan'ao or Shekou. Most of it is served in malls and residential streets, though, not in old eating quarters.

Yangshuo's table is short and local: beer fish, stuffed snails and vegetables, and Guilin rice noodles for breakfast. It is good when you eat it in the side streets or riverside villages and tired along West Street.

Neither city is a heritage destination, but Shenzhen gives you more to see. Its modern skyline and Civic Centre, the converted factories of OCT Loft, the copy painters of Dafen, and the older survivals at Nantou, Dapeng Fortress and the Hakka walled villages add up to a modest but varied set.

In Yangshuo the rebuilt centre has no significant museums. The cultural side comes down to the stone paving of West Street, the Ming-era Dragon Bridge, brick villages along the Yulong and the Big Banyan Tree.

Shenzhen gives you more choice after dark. There are big-room clubs with bottle service around Coco Park, relaxed pubs and craft beer in Shekou, small arts-crowd bars in OCT, and private karaoke rooms that run late. The catch is that the venues are spread across districts and tucked inside towers.

Yangshuo's night is one street. West Street fills with loud bars, stage dancers and domestic tourists until well past midnight, and the villages beyond it go silent.

Here Yangshuo is in a different league. Its limestone peaks, rice fields and two rivers form some of China's most famous scenery, and it starts at the edge of town. Rafting, the Li River walk, viewpoints such as Moon Hill and Laozhai Hill, caving and some of Asia's best rock climbing can fill a whole stay.

Shenzhen's outdoor life is real but smaller. You can climb Wutong Mountain, take the coastal trail on the Dapeng peninsula towards Xichong, or watch birds at the mangroves along Shenzhen Bay, which make good breaks from the city.

Shenzhen's location is hard to match. Hong Kong is under half an hour by fast train, and Guangzhou and Foshan are close behind. Macau's Portuguese old town is a ferry ride away, though visa rules apply for crossing back into the mainland.

Yangshuo's day trips are quieter: the old streets of Xingping, Fuli and Daxu, the better-preserved Ming and Qing town of Huangyao, and Guilin with its lakes and the Reed Flute Cave. They are pleasant outings, but none compares with a day in Hong Kong.

Shenzhen is the more practical base with children. It is safe and clean, the malls have nursing rooms, and the science museum and the big parks with lawns and playgrounds are good for quieter days. The drawbacks are long rides between attractions, intense summer heat and little English away from the main parks.

Yangshuo's pleasures for children are simpler, such as the show caves outside town, where some have mud pools to wallow in. Chinese families come here in large numbers, so children are welcome everywhere. Bedtimes near West Street can be hard, though, because the bars stay loud late into the night, and summers here are just as hot and stormy.

Shenzhen's metro reaches the airport, the theme parks, the border crossings and both high-speed stations, with signs and announcements in English as well as Chinese. The difficulty is distance, since the city stretches about 80km and crossing it to the beaches takes much of a morning.

Yangshuo's town centre is small enough to walk, but the scenery lies out in the countryside. To reach it you need a bicycle, an electric scooter, a minibus or a hired driver, and the high-speed station sits outside town. Outside the centre, signs are mostly in Chinese only.

Shenzhen has shopping you will not find anywhere else. Huaqiangbei's floors of gadgets and components are worth wandering even if you buy nothing, and there are tailors at Luohu Commercial City, canvases at Dafen and big malls full of Chinese design labels. Luxury fashion and independent boutiques are thin on the ground, though.

Yangshuo sells souvenirs, much of them mass-produced. The exceptions are the hand-painted fans from the workshops at Fuli, and osmanthus products and local tea, which make simple gifts.

Both are inexpensive by international standards, but Yangshuo stretches a budget further. Village guesthouses, rice-noodle breakfasts and bike hire cost very little. The money goes on the river cruises, rafts, cave tickets and the night show, and room rates jump sharply during Golden Week and the Spring Festival.

Shenzhen is among the pricier cities on the mainland. Even so, its modern hotels, cheap metro and ordinary neighbourhood meals keep costs modest, until you head for the international bars in Shekou or the theme parks.

Shenzhen has the only real season of the two, though much of it is touring work and most theatre is in Mandarin. The symphony orchestra plays at the Shenzhen Concert Hall, and the Poly Theatre and Shenzhen Grand Theatre bring in ballet, acrobatics and visiting orchestras. Small venues near OCT Loft host Chinese indie bands.

Yangshuo has one memorable evening: the large outdoor show on the Li River, with hundreds of performers lit against the floodlit peaks. Beyond that there are only cover bands and dance shows staged for tour groups.

For pampering, Shenzhen is the stronger choice. Its huge bathhouses run through the night with pools, saunas, sleeping halls and massage rooms, foot-massage parlours are on almost every block, and hot-spring resorts lie in the hills nearby. Around all that, the city itself is fast and humid.

Yangshuo offers a different kind of rest: the slow pace of a guesthouse in the Yulong valley, with rice fields outside, tai chi in the morning and a warm mud pool in one of the caves. Stay out of the noisy town centre if rest is the point.