Permanent residence application was rejected

Resister your own company. Suggest a consultancy company which gives you a lot of scope. Plenty of local lawyers can arrange this. They setup a virtual business address and you pay a small fee for monthly account filing. As the legal rep of the consulting company you can easily get a work permit. As legal rep you don’t have to follow the points system. It’s basically automatic. Then you can take on any kind of work as a consultant, a lot of companies like this because it’s contract services not employment so no labour bureau commitments and social welfare payments.

That’s unfortunate that your permanent residence was denied - maybe the best way to enjoy life in China is to start a business - locations like Yiwu is very convenient for low start ups - I know you are located in Shanghai but it’s a couple of hours away and will have no issue obtaining a work visa.