nickywong can lick my balls.

In my experiences any L visa that you get that is valid for 12 months will have a limit of 30 days per each entry. So...every month you'd have to leave China.

The only exception to that is the special L "family visiting" visa that you get when you marry a Chinese citizen.

If you're looking at staying in China long term I think the best thing to do is get yourself an L visa, come to China, and once here find a shyster visa agent to help you convert that into a six month or twelve month F or Z visa without stay limits.

In HK, nowadays only when you are HK ID cards holders can you apply for mulitple-entry visas. HK permanent ID cards holders can apply for 1-3 year multiple-entry visas.

As far as I know, the Chinese embassies/ consulates in the US are much better than those in other countries in issuing visas. If they don't want to give you a multiple-entry visa, you can try your best to apply for a longer duration of each stay double-entry visa. The duration of each stay is quite important, too.