The Law or regulation states that it should be done at the closest Police station to the place you live.  If they do not do it there, they should inform you of where you must go. 

The idea behind you registering at the closest one to your residence is for them to know that you are there now, and thus they "can keep an eye on you".  At least that is what I was told by the one closest to my apartment.

Mine is about 12 blocks away from my place.

u should go to closest police station to your apartment and don't forget that you should give them some documents such as  the copy of your passport &visa also residential lease !

Closest police station. Evidently all police stations has a room where someone is sitting playing with their phone just waiting for someone to drop by to register. At least in Zhuhai it seems to be the case. 

In downtown Guangzhou they now have "street centres" that deal with foreigner registration. Normally a small office tucked away somewhere. And yes, you need to register in the one that deals with your area. 

So so try your nearest police station first. If it's not the right place then they'll tell you where to go. 

In Henan, you must do registration while on RP at the closest police to the workplace or to the apartment. I'm not sure, what is 'Temp. registration'. 

More important than 'where' is requirement to announce 'exit and return to China/city' during RP.

PSB will refuse to extend RP, if 'exit announcement' wasn't made. I got 'exit&return' certificate last June after the fact, but copper warned me 'announcement' should be made before the exit.

Copper knew I exited China just by looking at his puter., what tells me police in Luohu must had made an exit mark online.

no.. Only the police station under which jurisdiction your place of living comes..

As said before, there will be a special "Reigstration Office" somewhere at the local station. It seems to be either on one particular floor, or might even have its own separate building (my local just recently moved from the 2nd floor to a new separate outhouse type thing).

There will be signs in English, but none of the police officers there will speak any... They will, of course, try to talk to you in Chinese - even after you've said "ting bu dong"  a few times.

Note - they also want your phone number! So, get your simcard before you to go the police! Naturally, some phone dealers will want to see the registration certificate you get from the police... (Yeah, get used to this.. A needs B, and B needs A... here, "ting bu dong" is your friend )

If you are coming here as a student, and you'll be living on campus, then you'll get a piece of paper from the International office, with an address and phone number on it. Tell the office people to make it a useful piece of paper - so it should include details of who to ring! And that you, the student, have crap Chinese, so don't bother trying to talk to you - just ring the number on the paper! You'll still need your passport and probably other stuff such as the invitation letter or whatever from the university. Your best bet is to ask another student who has been there for a year or 2! They'll be able to give you the best advice (meaning - you won't have to go back another time or 2..., and they can tell you exactly what to expect).

If you're on a work permit - are you living on a campus? If so, get someone from the office to accompany you to the police station (which may be on the university campus itself! They should have all the documents - other than your passport and Experts Certificate... although, maybe they do have them

If you're living on your own, in your own apartment.... Are you renting direct from the landlord? Or through an agent? If direct from the LL, then as mentioned above, you'll need some extra documents from them - certificate of ownership and the double-sided copy of their ID, as well as the rent agreement. If they're not used to foreigners, they might find it annoying to get all of this for you (cos, you know, that means effort!!!) If you're renting through an agency, they should already have this, ready to take away. If you are renting through an agency, you should get them to accompany you - just in case! Let's face it, they're getting paid to be an agent - they should actually do something to earn that money..!!!

Lastly, as I mentioned, the police at the station won't speak English (or any other language - only Putonghua, and Nonghua). So, use Baidu Fanyi on your smartphone. Use it yourself, and get them to use it as well! (friggen amazing that so few here have the sense to do this!!!) Use short, simple sentences - they translate much easier!!!