Are we talking about the same thing?
I'm talking about a set of turnstyles installed in the past few weeks at Luohu, right behind the immigration desks. There were no signs up as to the procedure, but the fellow standing there took my passport and -- I'm pretty sure -- turned to the visa page, put it down on a scanner plate on the turnstyle, a light flashed as the page was photographed, and I passed through the turnstyle. Nothing to be inserted: just put the page on the scanner.
(These aren't a substitute for passport control, but a second check.)
Yes, we are talking about the same things. Also remember no instructions whatsoever and many puzzled travelers standing around. One of the attendants took a picture of my buddies passport cover (the outside, no personal info) with his iphone, apparently he had never seen one from Serbia before
And I remember the passport page was indeed scanned because I was afraid my passport would break (again) in the process of bending it like that. The scanner has some sort of "cover", which the passport slides under but doesn't fit the hardcover style passports. If you have a HK, CN or US passport you wouldn't have that problem.