1. changing money (cash) in Australia is ridiculously expensive - sometime the spread is as high as 15%!! (in Singapore, with its vast network of muslim Indian money changers, the spread is often less than 1%). When I was in China last year, I found even in the hotels, you get a better rates.
Whilst on the subject of visiting China - I went on one of those really ridiculously cheap tours: if you share room, travel as a pair, a 1 week Beijing tour was $99/-(< $100 for the whole 1-week tour) per person + about AUD$65 tip for the tour guide. You have to buy your own air ticket to arrive, usually, 1 day before tour begins. You'll be met at airport and, on completion of tour, sent off to the airport for your departure (unless you ae planning to stay on a few days or weeks on your own). In Beijing, the extensive subway network is really something - 2 RMB (about 35 cents Aussie)per trip - be it 1 stop or 18 stops. No timetable - because if you miss a train, the next one is maybe 5 to 10 mins later.
For the $99 - we get BLD (breakfast, lunch, dinner) We stay in arguably 5-star hotels. Where in the world do you get such a deal? You are taken to various popular sight-seeing places + you are taken shopping (but you are not forced to buy)You can book such tours (mine was NEXUS Tours) - at one of those many small Chinese Travel companies in the suburbs (e.g. Eastwood) or Chinatown. I was on another $99 trip earlier - the Jiangnan Tour (1 week visiting Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi & back to Shanghai). You can take one tour after another to better use your one airfare & visa (about $90 single entry) I don't know for how long more such tours will remain available.
