If you have no one to help you with apartment hunting than I think agents are better to help, but be careful of them and their ways. My advice is to go personaly to their offices with a Chinese speaking friend instead of answering online ads.

An agent that was showing me some flats once lied to other potential renters right in front of me, she was telling them that she is from some big named real estate agency while in reality she is from a small unknown one.