If you have a Bank of America account, withdraw the cash from China construction bank ATMs -- by far the most inexpensive method and pay in cash to get your discount.

You can't withdraw US$1k from one ATM transaction -- the most is usually 10k-20k RMB, but you can sometimes just repeat the process at the same physical location. A quick call to BoA to make sure the ATM doesn't eat your card may be warranted.

tb