Why can’t someone just publish a rulebook for following the ever elusive rules of life for foreigners in Shanghai? For example, there’s this whole set of rules related to hosting visitors. This is not a big deal at all, but we found no to do list online, so I thought I’d pass along our findings to help future hosts have an easier time of it.

Within 24 of hours of arrival in Shanghai, visitors from other countries need to register with the local police station. If your visitor is staying at a hotel, the hotel will take care of the process for you. If, however, your visitor is staying in your house or apartment, here the quick list of what to do. Find out where your local police station is. You may have been there already, since upon arriving in Shanghai, we had to go and register our family.

1. Bring the following: your lease, a copy of your landlord’s ID, your passport. Also (and this is not on any online forums I have read) bring a copy of your visitor’s visa and passport page with picture.
2. The visitor needs to fill out a form. The form is in English and Chinese. You will be asked to provide a contact name and number of someone you know in Shanghai who speaks Chinese.
3. The whole process, excluding travel time to go out and get copies made (see #1 above) was about 10 minutes.