Originally Posted by
StuckInYYZ
Just realized you're in Shanghai. Perfect example of tracking foreigners... they were manually doing it. Immigration control...they want to know the first place you're staying at. Then you get to the hotel. There they take a copy of your passport and report it to the local police. And every time you change addresses, the process repeats itself. Technically if you stay at a person's residence, they're supposed to let the local police know as well (most don't know to do this, but I have seen it get someone in trouble).
(And no, not SerpentZA or Laowhy86 ... other people)
It's not perfect, but with the geopolitical nature of things, expect them to become more stringent.
Yup, we always register when we stay with her relatives.
Last I knew it was 72 hours to register in rural areas--I could picture someone legally hopping along, a night or two at each place without ever being legally required to register.