Has anyone done a layover stay here without paying $140 for a Chinese Visa recently? Older reports say you can get a free transit visa for stays under 24 hours and slip out of the airport. Is this still possible?

Flying in from HKG at 10pm and leaving at 7am, so less than 8 hours in the hotel, but even just resting in a real bed sure beats trying to sleep at the airport. Not to mention time to properly refresh before a 13-hour flight home.