Xi'an or Yangshuo?

Neither city has a coast, but Yangshuo at least has river swimming. In the hot months you can swim from the gravel banks of the Yulong and in calm stretches of the Li, which makes a pleasant end to a cycling day. In Xi'an swimming means a hotel pool or the hot-spring resorts at Lintong. From either city, a real beach means a separate trip to the coast.

Xi'an is a genuine eating destination, and its food is built on wheat. Hand-pulled and biangbiang noodles, roujiamo and mutton paomo are the staples, and the stalls of the Muslim Quarter sell lamb skewers and persimmon cakes late into the evening.

Yangshuo's table is narrower. Beer fish, stuffed snails and vegetables, and Guilin rice noodles are worth trying, ideally in the side streets or riverside villages rather than on tourist-facing West Street. Neither city offers much wine, coffee or fine dining.

This is where the two are furthest apart. Xi'an was capital to thirteen dynasties, and it shows. There is the 14km Ming wall, the Bell and Drum Towers, the Wild Goose Pagodas, the Great Mosque in its courtyard form, and a museum collection that runs from Zhou bronzes to Tang gold.

Yangshuo has almost none of that. Its centre is largely rebuilt and it has no significant museums. The heritage is modest: brick villages along the Yulong, the Ming-era Dragon Bridge and an ancient banyan tree. People come for the landscape.

Neither city is a nightlife destination, but the evenings feel different. Xi'an's are early and outdoors: crowds stroll the floodlit boulevard below the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and the lit wall gates, and there are bars around Defu Xiang and a few big clubs. Yangshuo puts everything on West Street, where bars with stage dancers and loud music stay rowdy past midnight, while the villages around it are dark and silent.

Yangshuo is built for the outdoors. Limestone peaks rise straight from the rice fields at the edge of town, with the Li and Yulong rivers winding between them. Rafting, cycling, kayaking, caving and hundreds of bolted climbing routes are all close to your guesthouse.

Xi'an sits on a flat, often hazy plain, so its best nature means a journey. The Zhongnan foothills are about an hour south, Mount Hua's sheer granite ridges are a fast-train ride away, and Taibai Mountain is there for serious hikers. These are excellent days out, but the scenery is not on your doorstep.

Xi'an's excursions are among the most important in China. The Terracotta Army has Huaqing Palace beside it, and there are also the Hanyangling and Qianling tombs, Famen Temple, and the Longmen Grottoes at Luoyang by fast train.

Yangshuo's outings are smaller. There are old towns such as Xingping, Fuli, Daxu and the better-preserved Huangyao, and Guilin with the Reed Flute Cave is about an hour away. They are pleasant, but with the scenery already on the doorstep they add relatively little.

The two are equally suited to families, and both work best with older children. In Xi'an the highlights are cycling on the wall, an hour at the Terracotta Army and the pandas at the Qinling wildlife park, though most sights are aimed at adults.

Yangshuo's appeal is active: rafting the Yulong, the show caves with their mud pools, and bike rides through the villages. Nothing there is built for children, though, and the country roads call for care. Both cities have hot summers.

Xi'an is the easier place to move about. The walled centre is a walkable grid, and a large metro with English signage reaches the pagodas, the stations and the airport. Line 9 runs most of the way to the Terracotta Army.

Yangshuo's small centre is walkable too, but the reasons to come lie out in the countryside. That makes a hired bicycle or electric scooter close to essential, with minibuses and drivers filling the gaps. The high-speed rail station is a drive from town.

Xi'an has more to buy, and better. Shuyuanmen sells calligraphy brushes, ink stones and seals, the Muslim Quarter has tea and shadow puppets, and big malls near the Bell Tower carry international brands. In Yangshuo shopping means souvenir stalls on West Street, much of it mass-produced, and Fuli's hand-painted fans are the one real local craft.

Both are cheap places for everyday spending, and in both the money goes on tickets. In Xi'an that means admission to the Terracotta Army, the wall and the big palace and tomb sites. In Yangshuo it means Li River cruises, rafts, caves and the night show, and room rates jump during Golden Week and the Spring Festival. A traveller who mostly cycles and walks in Yangshuo spends very little, while a sightseeing-heavy plan in Xi'an adds up.

Xi'an has more to see on stage. Besides the Tang dinner shows and the hillside spectacle at Huaqing Palace, there is Qinqiang, Shaanxi's raw local opera, in small theatres and parks. The city also has drum music, shadow puppetry, a grand theatre and a symphony orchestra.

Yangshuo has essentially one event: the large night show on the Li River created by Zhang Yimou, with hundreds of performers lit against the karst peaks. Beyond that there are only ethnic dance shows for tour groups and cover bands on West Street.

In Xi'an, resting means bathing and massage. Resort hotels at Lintong pipe the hot-spring water the Tang emperors bathed in into their pools, and in town there are plenty of cheap foot-massage parlours and Chinese bathhouses with saunas and rest halls.

Yangshuo has few spas and no bathing tradition, so its calm comes from where you stay. A guesthouse in the Yulong valley looking over rice fields and karst peaks settles you into a slow pace of cycling, river swims and tai chi. Keep away from the town centre, which stays loud late into the night.