Flash Trip to Shangai and Local Police Register
Apr 14, 2018, 6:45 am
#16
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Southeast USA
Programs: various
Posts: 6,710
Registration has also been easy for me--about 5 minutes.
The registration issue actually was very lax for a long time, and most foreigners (living in apartments) never bothered to do it in the late 1990's and first part of the 2000's. In Beijing, the change came in the last half of 2007 in the runup to the Beijing Olympics, when notices and announcements went out everywhere about getting to your local police station and registering. They gave about a 6 month grace period with warnings, then started handing out fines. And in the first half of 2008, apartment management companies went door-to-door at popular foreigner complexes, making sure people had their Registration slips. Police did spot checks as well, periodically standing in lobbies and checking foreigners as they came and went. Most of the rest of urban China followed the hardline in the few years after that and toughened up their registration policies. The directive to enforce this longstanding but long ignored registration requirement came from on high--central government. Police stations were/are not happy about it, as it increases their workload when they'd rather be napping.
The registration issue actually was very lax for a long time, and most foreigners (living in apartments) never bothered to do it in the late 1990's and first part of the 2000's. In Beijing, the change came in the last half of 2007 in the runup to the Beijing Olympics, when notices and announcements went out everywhere about getting to your local police station and registering. They gave about a 6 month grace period with warnings, then started handing out fines. And in the first half of 2008, apartment management companies went door-to-door at popular foreigner complexes, making sure people had their Registration slips. Police did spot checks as well, periodically standing in lobbies and checking foreigners as they came and went. Most of the rest of urban China followed the hardline in the few years after that and toughened up their registration policies. The directive to enforce this longstanding but long ignored registration requirement came from on high--central government. Police stations were/are not happy about it, as it increases their workload when they'd rather be napping.
Apr 20, 2018, 6:04 pm
#17
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: AU
Programs: former Olympic Airways Gold (yeah - still proud of that!)
Posts: 14,406
I err on the side of caution - sort of. For my personal time in China I registered once each year with the local police. Subsequent weekends out of China I didn't register each time I came back (I had my own apartment).
Where registering visitors can be important is your neighbours. A couple of friends were doing the airbnb thing. The block officials didn't like it. Another friend had a party. Block officials didn't like it. They had a couple of friends up from Hong Kong for the weekend. Failure to register your guests is a simple and quick way to resolve both those issues.
Agree for the OP, no need to register as under 24 hours.
Where registering visitors can be important is your neighbours. A couple of friends were doing the airbnb thing. The block officials didn't like it. Another friend had a party. Block officials didn't like it. They had a couple of friends up from Hong Kong for the weekend. Failure to register your guests is a simple and quick way to resolve both those issues.
Agree for the OP, no need to register as under 24 hours.