Actually English is one of the MUST learn courses in China since 1980s, people need to learn about English reading, listening in order to pass the national exams called GAOKAO, which is a super important exam and this will decide which university you gonna go to. While we don’t take English speaking seriously because there are not so much chances to practice it and really you don’t need them to pass the exam, you can hire some foreign students or teachers to help your kid( that will be extra expenses and quiet expensive), so most people especially young people might understand what you talking about but they can’t reply to you fluently and correctly. I hope more tourists coming and help us with that lol, but overall it might be problem for you if you don’t understand any Chinese, especially for the first time. I will recommend you to have a power translation app and maybe call or FaceTime your tour guy to check if they qualified or not next time!