Take a class in Chinese to get the basics. You won't be able to have much of a conversation at such a basic level, but it will make life much easier around China if you can be self sufficient.

I was just in Shenzhen two weeks ago, and though I can speak basic Mandarin and read some Chinese, I was thrown a curve at the train station. Almost no English at the train station, which was also true in Wuhan and a few other places. That's a big deal, because taking high speed rail is much more pleasant than flying.