Now that I have moved closer to the heart of evil paradise here in Beijing, I've had several lovely and memorable experiences updating my documents with the local authorities.
A warm reminder to you all: remember, if you move to a new city, you need to apply for a new residence permit 10 (ten) days after your new foreign expert's certificate (or alien employment certificate, depending on planet of origin) is issued. This is totally independent of the actual date of expiration of aforementioned residence permit and is not an issue if you are changing jobs within the same city.
When looking at the rules at the bureau of entry and exit- all written in English- I still had to ask the officer which rule I was in violation of. The words "register" and "police" were used both in referring to registering at the local PSB as well as meaning go to the bureau of entry and exit to apply for a new residence permit.
This was just a situation that they hadn't encountered at my office before (coming off a res permit issued in a different city) and the company was pretty good about repaying me for the fine incurred. As an individual, I felt kind of helpless about this whole thing because even if I had known about this regulation, I couldn't really of grabbed the company's business certificate and chop to process it by myself. My wedding is in Shanghai in less than one month and I had these horrible visions of being stranded in Hong Kong while my family was starving to death on the streets of Shanghai, unable to complete the most basic tasks without me there....
ANYWAY- arm yourself with knowledge so you can constantly nag whoever is in charge of helping you file those documents. They're important!