Not sure which part you were in, but this is just not true in my experience. I've been to Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and some others, and Mandarin really is

Not sure which part you were in, but this is just not true in my experience. I've been to Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and some others, and Mandarin really is a must if you want to even have a chance of communicating. I can't imagine how I'd function here if I only had English. I've not yet been to Shanghai, and while I would expect the English-speaking percentage to be a bit higher, it would still likely only be in the single-digits by my estimation.