Updated experience today. I had previously registered and it didn't work and they told me perhaps the computer hadn't updated and to try it again next time I entered PVG. Well, today was "next time". I went to the empty e gates and tried to use my passport. A message came up saying I wasn't in the system, which was the same message I got last time. I had to go over to the registration booth again and tell the immigration guy there that I registered before and he looked up my passport info in the system.

At first he said there was no record of me, then after a few more minutes of checking, he said that indeed I was in the system but for some reason it wasn't working. The guy then re-input all of my information into the computer and told me to try again. He walked my passport over to one of the gates and put it on the reader. The gates opened and I walked through by putting my thumbprint on the reader. The agent then took my passport to another group of agents to have them type more information into the system. Those agents seemed to have no clue what was going on and looked at my passport and typed into the computer for a few minutes before giving me back my passport and telling me, "I'm not sure if it will work next time or not".

All in all I'm beginning to think it is not worth the effort. Another thing is that you don't get a passport stamp which will no doubt drive some clerk at a hotel in Beijing nuts when they try to locate your "entry date". I will have to see how this works in practice when I venture to the capital again.

I arrived early morning today and was one of the first off the plane. If I'd just gone through the normal passport processing line, I'd have been out of the airport in 5 minutes. This ordeal took 25 minutes.