Hello, I wish I'd found this forum ages ago! My daughter has been studying in Kunming since February. We are coming to see her at the end of her program, and then she will travel with us around Yunnan and Guilin until we leave China from Shanghai. We would like to ship her extra bags to our hotel in Shanghai, or another place that will store them until we get there. Can anyone recommend how to go about that?

You can ship luggage at the train station cargo depot. But you'll have to pick it up at the Shanghai train station. Benefits are they will store it for two weeks there for free at the Shanghai station for and a nominal daily fee thereafter. If you're staying at a five star hotel chain in Shanghai, usually, you can notify the concierge and they will make an effort to store your luggage until you check in if you provide them the shipment details. It's been a few years since I did that, so hotel and security policies may have changed about baggage storage without the guest doing it in person.

might also be security changes at railway station

As far as I know, the cargo section of the Kunming station is still accepting luggage, though it does go through a scanner. Also, a good idea to lock any sent luggage. It's going to pass through many areas and stay stored in an area with many workers coming and going. I've never had a problem shipping luggage, but did have a mini swiss knife taken from my saddle bag when I shipped my bike. Also Shanghai has a few stations, so you should make sure which the luggage is going to arrive and similarly it's claimed at the cargo section of the station, which can be in some obscure area to the side or back, but usually there are at least signs pointing the general direction.

as Far as shipping personal effects, etc, why not just ship excess bags to yourself back home? Apart from the extra time it takes, it means you don’t have to worry about picking it up before leaving. Anyone tried this to know whether or not this method is cost effective?