The ABC of the latest visa regulations

via WikipediaThe Beijinger did a good job in spelling out the latest on the new visa regulations for China. (h/t Danwei). I see still a lot of false rumors and uncertainly passing by on my digital radar screen, so this overview makes a lot of sense.
The end of the stories sounds very familiar:

While researching this post, we attempted to get clarification from both the Exit and Entry Management Section of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the current state of visa policies. The lady on duty at the Exit and Entry Management Section of the Beijing PSB informed us that all questions related to the formalities of getting a visa during the Olympic period should be referred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When we inquired about the likelihood of being able to extend visas from within China during the Olympics, we were informed that there was no definite policy and she could not provide any firm advice. We called the number for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs supplied by the PSB and were forwarded on twice before being given the number 6596 3788. None of our repeated calls to this number were answered.