After many trips to China, my experience to "survive" is to prepare as below:
1. Take photo of some kind of food in your phone (pizza, hotdog, vegetable...) for showing to waiter/waitress in the restaurant.
2. Think of popular sentences OR questions and using Google Translation, then print them out. For example: I need hot water OR Pls not much cooking oil OR where is the toilet?.......It would be great tool to be survive in China.
3. Join Couchsurfing and get more friends OR host in China, it will help you a lot
I will survive
Cheers
Tran Hai Anh (Chan)