They said that is was not a problem, and could not have been more helpful.

Then you must be lucky, my experience (in zhejiang province) was that your passport must be valid for ANY visa. Not on your whim, so to speak. Thus I had to pay 2,500 hong kong dollars to get a new one from Hong Kong. New UK passports CANNOT be gained in China anymore, and anyone who tells you any different is a bare faced liar!!!!