English is the second language of most young and middle-aged Chinese, so you should be fine at least in tier-s cities.

I recently visited China and even the people you'd expect to speak English (front desk at Western branded hotel, airline check-in, etc) either spoke zero English or really struggled. My shitty Mandarin got a workout.

Remember to carry your passport at all times, as you'll need it to buy a train ticket.

Even a simple metro ticket.

You can also smile at the CCTV cameras, which are in groups every 100m or so within cities.

> You can also smile at the CCTV cameras, which are in groups every 100m or so within cities.

1/100th the amount of smiling at the CCTV cameras compared to the UK then.

Train tickets sure, for the high speed rail, but metro? Not in Shanghai at least

Metro ticket machines in Beijing won't sell a ticket until you've scanned an identity card.

Tourists must wait at the ticket window. Foreigners aren't usually asked to show the passport unless they look Chinese.

No need to wait at no window. After you activate Alipay, just click on "Transport" and create a metro card for Beijing. Scan code on enter, scan on exit, pay the sweet low fare automatically. One app, 30+ cities.

"Activating Alipay" requires using an identity card or passport.

You don't have to wait at the ticket window though. Privacy? Maybe not. But convenience? At every corner.

I took a year of Mandarin as an undergrad, speaking is doable, reading and writing is hard, but Google Translate & Co. would make that less daunting now.

I thought speaking would be hardest with the tone changes. I took one online class, was overwhelming

I felt like it started making sense after a month or so, but even though I got up to ~1500 characters at the end of the year, reading was never easy.