Lyle,
If you were looking for a job in a city near your hometown, would you post your resume on job sites and wait?
The best employers do not have to pay recruiters or browse websites. They review resumes of candidates that possess the research skills and personal initiative to locate and contact them directly. Chinese universities are no exception.

It's hard work extracting all the necessary evidence/paperwork from FT's- it's time-consuming and FAO's like agents to do all the donkey-work for them. Even good Chinese universities do not have personnel departments for due processing. However, if we would like to inform Lyle of all the paperwork and pictures a FAO would like to see and put him wise on those 'Research Skills' he may be able to make a direct approach. But I would say why bovver, it's not as if an agent will prevent you from telling him to sod off so you can have private words with the actual employer. And you can put it to him "The evil recruiter tells me my apartment will be carpeted wall to wall with Axminster. Is that true and if so please send me a Poleroid!" You see it matters not that agents may well be piles of shit because we ourselves will be interviewing the employer when the agent has done his skivvying.