Boone knows a clear future and path for any alt-coin. Bitcoin is still up in the air ,but it is easily light years ahead of any alt-coin in stability. If you want to invest in alt-coins just know that there is high risk involved and be prepared to lose most if not all of your money. If I was given twenty dollars, I personally would invest in quarkcoin because it is really cheap and has a lot of potential upside ,but of course it is risk just like any other alt-coin.
I think it had to do more with banks banning how bitcoins could be handled than banks banning bitcoins altogether. Safe to say that they still do have purpose in China.
You bring up a good point as numerous alt-coins really have now value and their prices go up and down based on how bitcoin does ,but I think some like peercoin and quarkcoin could be worth something one day. Might as well get in now with not as much competition and media exposure like bitcoin.
There are a bunch of bitcoin exchanges you can get btc at including Mt. Gox, BTCE, bistamp, etc. Just look up bitcoin exchanges or bitcoin markets on duckduckgo or google.