Shipping electronic goods (Beijing)

Hi

I'm moving from London to Beijing soon. Amongst my belongings that I intended to ship over are two large screen televisions. The shipping company advises me it will cost almost as much as these items cost to buy new, in import taxes etc.

Has anyone encountered this before? Is it true? These are used tv's that I own, I'm not exporting them to China to sell!

Is it possible to take these items as baggage on a plane instead?

Your insight would be appreciated.

Thanks

Darren