convert the money at blackmarket. it is very safe nowadays. depoit money in each other's bank accounts. i did that before i came to australia. it is a little bit cheapter than converting it through bank of china. and no need to get any permission.
bark, yes. i use english windows XP. so i can view most of the chinese webpages. sometimes i can not. it doesn't support chinese perfectly. but still not bad though.
i like chinese windows better. my friends don't speak english. i can't read their emails. plus i need to search for information from those chinese websites but i can't now because i can't type in chinese etc.
