Having just given them an excellent review for the bend over backwards level of attempting to get **** done on the part of the hotel owner (who claims not to have done anything to be specifically listed on Trip as experienced with taking foreigners on the basis of my being his first ever foreigner), the experience from the government (some of whom at least realized they were being preposterous) was beyond the pale in terms of having No ******* Clue what they were doing even as they were doing it.
I'm sure if I try really hard I can come up with an example somewhere in China of a local government which was more disorganized and less prepared for the concept of a Chinese resident who is not a Chinese citizen but, even if you ignore the Covid related over reactions turning the formerly hour long process (that should have been five minutes) into a three hour long slog, it was a pathetic example of an inability to either follow standardized procedure or attempt to figure out what standardized procedure is.