How would flight crews or Chinese expats know about this, even if it was true? Speculation based on nothing.

Was not looking to spread rumors, and do understand the life of its own comment. Actually came here to see if others had heard anything .. glad its nit true..Thanks for your insights.

I currently have an 'L' visa, which are now only for tourism, but on my next trip I plan on visiting and staying with my partner's (who is a Chinese citizen) family and friends for Chinese New Year. Can I technically visit and stay with family/friends with an 'L' visa or do I need to get a Q/S visa?

If I cannot stay with family/friends, should I book ultra cheap hotels for the duration of my stay, so they register me with the PSB, but instead stay with family/friends?

Based on piecing together multiple answers from above, it looks to be that I can stay with them officially, but I want to confirm.

There is no rule stating visa holders of any type must stay in hotels.

Thanks for the quick response. I'll just have my partner's parents and friends help register me with the PSB when I stay with them.

PSB registration, while technically required, isn't all that common for short term guests (i.e. the few times I've done it, the PSB people think I'm paranoid and are clearly bothered by the extra work).

Please don't construe this as advice, but rather a pragmatic FYI.

I would make the effort to register, especially if you're going to be there more than 3 days. Your hosts may also prefer this if they are play-it-by-the-book people. However, don't be surprised if the relevant PSB/police office is "closed" for registrations due to the holiday, in which case you're off the hook. :)

I have a bit different take on this and I thank @worldiswide for sharing, even if this does seem to be just rumor. While there may be nothing to the scuttlebutt, all of us who know China can probably think of instances where early rumors turned out to be later facts.

I have always thought that this 10-year visa for US citizens is subject to the vagaries of Chinese goodwill--even though there is a treaty in place that supposedly "guarantees" these to be issued. Given the state of the world, it would not take too much deterioration in relations between China and the USA for these 10-year visas to be abrogated either temporarily or permanently. The Chinese are perfectly capable of acting unilaterally or in concert with whatever the US does on its visa policy. There is precedent for this. China has, in the not too distant past, tossed obstacles at both French and Norwegian visa applicants, due to completely unrelated events that happened to anger the Chinese. Tightening up visa policy is a favorite Chinese tactic, since it can be seen as "retaliation" that would make a point without provoking more serious retaliation on political, economic, or military terms---visa obstacles typically impact low-value targets such as tourists, students, etc.

For any US citizen who has a better than 50/50 chance of visiting China at least once in the next few years and has the disposable cash to get one of the 10-year visas, I would suggest doing so sooner rather than later.

They've never given a hoot about our showing up with L visas and putting down a private residence as an address. (My partner is naturalized but has plenty of relatives over there.) Admittedly, we had a long string of L's before the Q visas existed. Likewise, the police didn't give a hoot about doing the private residence registration despite the L visa.

Thank you for your as usual articulate and thoughtful post. You were able to put into words some of the potential possibilities and posturing that could occur that I was unable to do and provide some context. While I'm sure that this much thinking did not go into the unsubstantiated comments we heard, I really was curious if there was any thing else in the air. Your final paragraph sums up the answer to my real question. Glad I just got the 10 yr last week.

They have no basis --whatsoever-- to "give a hoot [about visa type]".

Well before, the L visa covered the situation that a Q visa is now for, so an L visa was intended to allow visits to relatives before. With the split, I didn't know if I could visit relatives and stay with them on an L visa now or if I needed to get a Q. At least how I interpreted the visa definitions was that if there are separate visas for visiting people in China, then if you have an L visa, you are not visiting anyone and thus have to stay in a hotel or some other sort of accommodation that is not someone's private home.

Purpose of trip and where you decide to stay are two different issues.

Your interpretation is incorrect. Plenty of people right now get L tourist visas by invitation method from a Chinese or resident expat friend, and often include staying at a private residence as part of the visa application support. As @moondog says, visa category is completely different issue from where you stay inside China.

What's more, it's perfectly acceptable to write in a hotel or two on the visa application, and then subsequently "change your mind".