Also several people at the bus station 'reported' seeing a foreigner get on a bus.

This is the 'call in a foreigner' 5000 RMB reward programme for being on a dodgy visa or breaking the law, a programme that was always around but given bigger teeth starting in August of 2014. 5k is a huge sum in Yuncheng, 3+ months pay to many. 2 years to the poor old timers on a pension of collecting plastic water bottles.

People laughed at me when I told them that beginning in August of 2014 that the locals would flip open their phones to call in my whereabouts and activity to the local PSB:

When eating lunch.
At my favourite noodle shop.
That I had gone to for years.

They did this every time I went there which was sometimes twice a day.
I left soon after this behaviour commenced.

People told me I was making it up. Said I was paranoid, that I did not understand what they were really saying.

What more do you need to experience, see, or read about?