I never said anything about money in my OP because I don't want any; in fact, if any of you end up performing this mission, you're welcome to burn the money that I've already loaded onto the phone. I just want my phone back, and for others to be able to avail of it (strangely, I actually prefer it to my Galaxy S3... no apps, but I can text crazy fast with it).

My friend who has the phone is under a lot of stress these days. As such, he has an irrational aversion to sending it to China because he believes that he will need to complete lots of paper work (not true, I know). But, intra-US might be a bit easier for him to swallow, especially if I gave him a deadline (i.e. he knows that I don't really need the phone in question, but if one of you guys does, he might feel enough pressure to make things happen). The dream scenario would be a Baltimore based FTer -- with an upcoming China trip -- meeting him in person.

I really expect that I'll be able to get my friend to send the phone all the way over here between now and May, but you never know. In spite of the fact that it's a Beijing number, I live in Shanghai now, so I'd like it to end up in Shanghai, somehow. (It works all over China... all over the world, actually.)