I have no idea what OP paid for the AA tickets or where he was headed from PEK, but before abandoning those tickets, I hope that he carefully reviewed the fare rules to determine whether his tickets could be reissued to the ultimate destination by paying a change fee and fare difference. Maybe that would have cost more than he has now paid, but maybe not. In addition, I would at a minimum have cancelled the AA tickets as they would likely have retained some value which might have been useable in future. Not always, but at least worth conducting the analysis.

This sounds like a rash act which was not thought through.