Two questions: How difficult was traveling and communicating in China and how was the food?
Communicating: in the majority of places we went, we found someone who spoke enough English to help us (e.g., in a tourist info office). In a few places, we had to get creative with the phrase book. It is very hard for us Westerners to pronounce Mandarin vowels understandably -- pointing to phrases written out in Chinese characters worked much better. We had no luck in the Beijing train station, though, and gave up there.
Transportation: plane tickets for intra-China flights are easily reserved online. We mostly got around by bus -- we found it too hard to buy train tickets, which are often sold out 2-3 days ahead of time. Private long-haul buses were OK -- usually air-conditioned. No restrooms on board, but the bus stops every 2-3 hours at a rest station, usually with some food available there, too. In Beijing, the bus station situation is complicated -- there are many stations, each of which only services a few cities. We figured out what we wanted there with the help of a Chinese woman I happen to know there, who made a couple phone calls for us -- if you are at a hotel/hostel with some English speaking staff, they could do that for you. If you want to take a taxi, you'll probably need the location you are headed to written out in Chinese characters.
Plumbing: Ranges from crummy to crappy. Almost every hotel/hostel we stayed in ($20-30 range per night) had some plumbing and/or electrical issues. But if you know how to jiggle the float in the toilet, etc., then you'll get by. Hotels in this price range were OK -- no bugs, comfortable enough beds, Western-style toilets, showers.
Chinese people were generally helpful, but not overtly super-friendly. About like our guide book suggested. Example: When we wanted a bus to Suzhou from Yanzhou (near Qufu), there was no one in the bus station who spoke English. But the guy behind the counter pointed off to a place outside the building. We were confused, so he came from behind the counter and led us outside to the window where we could buy the tickets -- it was a different bus company, working from a different window. Worked out fine -- he was helpful but brusque.
We used the Rough Guide -- others use the Lonely Planet. One of these is essential for travel on your own.
{Edit: add food note}
Food ranged from weird to good. Breakfast is the hardest part -- we're used to certain things, and it's hard to break these habits. On our site there's a picture of me eating hot and spicy beef noodle stew for breakfast, and looking pretty dubious. Was only about $1, though, and actually was fairly good and filling -- but not my usual breakfast fare (oat bran with raisins).
Ordering food: the Chinese take the menu as the starting point for negotiating what they actually want to eat. So the waitress gives you the menu and stands there expecting you to start talking to her immediately. On the other hand, we wanted to pore over the menu slowly and figure out what we might try. Of course, if the menu was in Chinese, that made progress slow. In such a case, the simplest technique was to point at someone else's food and get some of that. They generally think this is hilarious good fun. Dumplings and tofu are the simplest things to order.
Unlike what we expected, we didn't get tea and rice very often. We were in northern China, and noodles are more the staple food there than rice. Of course, you can always order rice.
