Is there a wide range of hotels open to booking online? I don't know, have never booked a hotel online, at least not in China .

JanJal has probably got it - mostly an attempt to streamline a complicated system. Whether you like the system is another matter. Good idea to get qualified and certified, as Campo says, makes sense. I take Goldie's point as well - obviously, it is a matter of discrimination in favor of the more highly trained (and also in favor of those with a lot of cash under their supervision), and it is a national policy and a matter of national competition, but I don't think it means any upswing in xenophobia. I don't think it's got much to do with socialism either. I expect discrimination on the basis of nationality will continue, as it's pretty much standard operating procedure within the widely-accepted global regime of competing nations.

Just turn up. Staff in hotels usually don't speak much English but they can get you a room anyway.

Do many governments do something like this? Many certainly discriminate on the basis of nationality. I'm not sure what it will mean that one's categorized qualifications will appear on the resident permit itself, but I don't think it looks good. Apparently Shanghai doesn't care how old you are if you have something to do with managing or directing large amounts of corporate capital. Might this be called socialist(?) class discrimination, with a mercantilist hangover?
Thoughts?

Peter, you are no longer discussing your own subject, which was hump/obama/punch - or, rather, your own subject is always the same: Badshit is gonna happen in China, and foreigners better look out.
Thanks for the warning.