I use the Shanghai visa-free transit occasionally and after going through the police station registration once, I decided to stay in hotels on my next trips. T

I use the Shanghai visa-free transit occasionally and after going through the police station registration once, I decided to stay in hotels on my next trips. The registration process took a long time: - first I had to wait around an hour in a queue, because out of 5 available policemen only one was registering visitors - the police officer didn't speak any English, and there were 2 foreigners who didn't speak Chinese in front of me - even though I had a native Mandarin speaker with me, it took at least 30 minutes to register - the police officer kept asking me for the number of my visa, and didn't understand that I'm on visa-free transit; in the end I provided number of some stamp that I got in my passport while entering the country In summary, while it was obvious to me that I have to visit a police station unless staying in a hotel, this process is very troublesome. It definitely wasn't designed for Airbnb-era, it is assumed that if you stay at private place, you have host that will help you with the registration process.