We are down in Jiangsu provience, about 2 hours north of Shanghai, in a small town. If you use an agent, you dont need to have your own taobao account, you just tell them what you want- send some links (i do english searches) and they will buy, check and send to you, or just send straight to you. You pay extra- 10-20% and most have a min order fee i.e 50 kwai.
We get everything sent to my husbands work, but once a courier knows your apartment it gets easier, took them a long time to work out my mums place but now, no worries. How long have you been in China? We've been here for 4 years. I've heard alot about Qindao, is it as nice as they say?