China's artists stand at the bleeding edge between everything that is old and new, from residents washing their vegetables on the sidewalk to deluxe hotels and ultrachic restaurants. Unless you speak Chinese, it's a good idea to hire a guide. Abercrombie & Kent's Hong Kong office can organize the whole tour (852-2865-7818; abercrombiekent.com; trips from $300 per person per day), or you can make arrangements through your hotel concierge. You'll generally rely quite a lot on your concierge, since English speakers are relatively rare even in these huge cities.

The country code for China is 86; the city code for Beijing is 10, for Shanghai, 21. Prices quoted are for the current month. In Beijing, the U.S. embassy is at 3 Xiushui Beijie (6532-3831; beijing.usembassy.gov); in Shanghai, the U.S. consulate is at 1469 Huaihai Zhong Lu (6433-6880; www.shanghai.usconsulate.gov). A visa is required to enter the country.

Beijing
Many of China's most important and internationally exhibited artists are represented at the Courtyard Gallery (6526-8882). The Red Gate Gallery, in the old city wall's Dongbianmen Watchtower, has an artist-in-residence program (6525-1005). Factory 798 houses the Beijing Tokyo Art Projects Gallery (8457-3245); the AT Café, decorated with avant-garde renderings of Maoist slogans (6438-7264); and the 25000 Li Cultural Transmission Center, whose exhibits commemorate Mao's Long March (6438-7107). Have your hotel provide directions for the 30-minute ride, since your driver probably won't know the place. The China Art Gallery is newly refurbished (6401-2252), and the China Century Altar hosts visiting exhibitions of foreign contemporary art (6851-3322).

Beijing hotels on this year's Gold List (January 2004) include the Peninsula Palace (8516-2888; www.peninsula.com; doubles, $320; handicapped friendly) and the St. Regis (8610-6460-6688; www.stregis.com/beijing; doubles, $350; handicapped friendly). The Grand Hyatt Beijing is attached to the glitzy Oriental Plaza mall (8518-1234; www.beijing.grand.hyatt.com; doubles, $220; handicapped friendly).

The Green T House is noteworthy for its faux fur couches, tea-inspired cuisine, and wild oversized dishware (6552-8310; dinner, $40).

Book ahead for good Peking duck ($11) at the tiny, boisterous Liqun Kaoyadian (6702-5681). For some kitsch and a good Hunan meal, try the Mao Family Restaurant. The hong shao pork, at less than $4, is delicious (8401-7173).

Shanghai
The Shanghai Museum symbolizes the city's leap into the modern age: Its collection of Chinese art, much of it donated by Hong Kong tycoons, is exhibited in well-designed galleries with motion-sensitive lighting (6372-3500; www.shanghaimuseum.net). The Shanghai Art Museum has recently started showing avant-garde Chinese and Western art in addition to its fine collection of modern oils and traditional painting (www.sh-artmuseum.org.cn). Shanghart, in Fuxing Park, is the heart of the city's art scene (6359-3923; www.shanghart.com). Its warehouse, at 50 Moganshan Road, has a number of galleries advertised by signs hanging outside. While on Moganshan Road, also visit both the Eastlink Gallery, in a former textile factory workshop (6276-9932), and Shanghai BizArt (6277-5358).

The 2004 Gold List includes Shanghai's Four Seasons (6256-8888; www.fourseasons.com; doubles, $340; handicapped friendly), the JC Mandarin (6279-1888; www.jcmandarin.com; doubles, $255; handicapped friendly), and The Westin (6335-1888; www.westin.com/shanghai; doubles, $235-$265; handicapped friendly). The Grand Hyatt claims to be the world's tallest hotel (5049-1234; www.shanghai.hyatt.com; doubles, $230; handicapped friendly). The 53-room 88 Xintiandi stands apart from the city's cookie-cutter business hotels (5383-8833; www.88xintiandi.com; doubles, $328).

Shanghai cuisine is lighter and less sweet than Beijing's. M on the Bund is the classiest Western restaurant, where you can sip chablis and watch barges chug down the Huangpu River (6350-9988; entrées, $19-24). Pumpkin dumplings are part of Ye Shanghai's nouvelle Shanghainese cuisine (6311-2323; entrées, $36). Three on the Bund is home to four hot restaurants (6323-3355), as well as the Shanghai Gallery of Art and Armani's China flagship. The smoky YY Club is a coffeehouse-cum-bar where DJs, writers, and artists hang (6466-4098). The Door mixes antique Chinese decor and Western jazz played on traditional Chinese instruments (6295-3737).

Reading
See the urban underground world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll in the new China through the eyes of bad-girl author Mian Mian in Candy (Back Bay Books, $14). The accessible Inside Out: New Chinese Art catalogs the Asia Society's 1998 avant-garde tour (University of California Press, $55). For a glimpse of China's hinterland, read River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, by Peter Hessler (Perennial, $14). Lonely Planet publishes the most dependable guides for each city: Beijing ($16) and Shanghai ($20). Once you get there, pick up the Beijing and Shanghai editions of City Weekend, as well as the monthly magazines That's Beijing and Beijing Talk.