Yesterday’s stabbing near Qianmen that resulted in the death of an American man has been making the news across the city and is garnering plenty of reaction on the web. Netizens have a lot to say about the latest incident in a summer of violent incidents between both Chinese and foreigners.

The expat is a curious species, especially the China variety – so often found shunning the local language for a dialect more given to bragging rights – coming and going, never quite committing to the land they hope to flourish in. If the very word “expat” has become unappetizing, Earnshaw Books’s new nonfiction anthology, Unsavory Elements, is something of a corrective, with a vast cast of writers introducing polyphonic flavor and depth into the expat stereotype.

From Matthew Polly trying to make financial gain out of his time training with the Shaolin monks, to Kaitlin Solimine’s elegy for the “Chinese mother” she gained during an exchange program to Beijing, and Rudy Kong teaching ice hockey to his students in Dalian, the tapestry that is laid out here is hardly monochrome. One might be tempted to classify it as a travel book of sorts; what is being traversed and recollected throughout is not the lay of the land, but rather, the contours of confusion, excitement and isolation that every China expat has, at one point, had to clamber across and conquer.

2013 is shaping up to be the year of visa reforms for foreigners in China – in addition to new measures for collecting biometric data (i.e. fingerprints) from foreigners and tightened-up enforcement, officials are also considering draft regulation for two new types of visas: the R1 and R2 visas.

According to the China Daily:

A R1 visa will come with residency rights, while a R2 visa will allow multiple entry and exits.

Liu Guofu, an immigration law specialist at the Beijing Institute of Technology, said R1 visa holders can apply for a residence permit for up to five years, while a R2 visa will allow professionals to stay in China for 180 days at a time.

The regulation will be implemented under the Exit and Entry Administration Law, which takes effect in July.

Amid all the 100-day crackdown hubbub last summer, China passed a new immigration law that is set to take effect July 1. The Beijing Reviewer has put out a two-part blog series that highlights what you need to know about this law, including the possibility of fingerprinting requirements, changes in visa approval policies, and bigger fines and penalties for overstaying your visa.

To celebrate the upcoming anniversary of the Beijinger magazine, we're taking a look back at the 11 most-read posts in the history of TheBeijinger.com. We're going to countdown from 11 to one, with a blog every day until the big event on October 18. Without further ado ... let's step back in time to May 23, 2008.

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Note: The information contained below was accurate at the time that it was originally published.

"China Visa – Facts and Fiction" by Nadine Ulrich