It's TRUE

What you said is TRUE.

Here is my post for more info and just FYI:

Here is what I found so far:
if you have a gold or platium AmericanExpress card:
(1) go to local AmericanExpress travel service office and buy Travel Check on person, there is no fee charge!!
search their website to find a local office!

(2) then in China in big cities like Beijing... go to Bank of Communications, they can cash out free of charge in the higher remitte rate ( e.g. 8.26 vs. 8.21 cash rate).
the address of this bank in Beijing is:
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Bank of Communications
33 Jin Rong Da Jie, Xi Cheng District
100032
Telephone #: [phone]
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go to the following link to search for the city you need:

http://travel.americanexpress.com/tcintl/feefreelocator

this is the easiest and safest way of carrying larger amount of cash as I think
Good Luck.