My latest China TWOV experience (last month).

Transiting at SHA. About 20h (overnight) transit. Arriving and departing SHA.

As every other time, myself (EU passport) and my colleague (Canada passport) were told to go to two different agents, though we knew that it'll delay the whole line. And so it did. The whole line behind us (that goes to two desks) was stuck for a good 5+ minutes, while the two women talked between themselves and as I understood had no idea how to handle TWOV. (That seems to be the case every single time: I've never had anyone who actually knows how to handle TWOV, they always seem to be confused and asking around amongst themsleves what to do. Seems to be very poor training (or rather, none) on TWOV of the border patrol agents...)

In the end, as every other time, our passports and onward flight printouts got handed off to the duty supervisor, who handed it off to someone else (who left the floor, and later came back) and told us to wait. I believe that they called the airline (as they always seem to do without exception) to verify the onward flights. Took not much longer than 10 minutes of waiting and we got our passports back.

BUT, this time one big difference. Always before it was the hexagon stamp in both the passport and on the back of the departure card. This time we both got the oval stamp and also a big blue stamp "temporary entry permit" in the passport that was dated until the next day (i.e. only 24h, not 72h as per TWOV), when our connecting flight was, in the passport, and nothing on the departure card. Upon exiting the square departure stamp.

Is it that even the duty supervisor did it wrong (used the wrong stamps/procedure)? (I wouldn't be surprised, given the very poor training of the China border patrol officers re: TWOV, based at least on my repeat experiences - all at SHA and PVG.) Or has the procedure changed and the hexgonal stamp is no longer used for TWOV, and now the oval stamp (red) plus the 1/2 page big "temporary entry permit" (blue) stamp are now used in the passport (with date being not 72h, but only the actual flight departure date), and the rectangular stamp when exiting (vs. none earlier)?

Just curious about the latter..and just sharing my experience on the former. From my last few (about five or six) TWOV experiences at PVG & SHA it is consistent in that the border patrol officers seem to know nothing about TWOV (always act confused and ask others "what do I do here?" from what I can gather and what I am told by my colleauges who speak Mandarin), and that it always takes a good 15~25 minutes total as they every single time call the airline and verify the onward flights/ticket.