Just go. I just went to Shenzen last month. I don't speak a word of Chinese. It really helps that you can go to Hong Kong (where you can get by with English) first and cross the border by train/car. If you change your mind, it's easy to come back.
Crossed the border, got a SIM card with a data plan. Browsed wikitravel, showed taxi driver the characters for where I wanted to go. Then just take another taxi ride to a hotel from google maps, reception spoke English. Rest of the trip went similarly. Had no problems.
Years ago some non-Chinese speaking friends come back with lots of cheap pen drives from know brand with the case boasting lots of gigabytes. Upon close inspection they only had 256mb flash chip and a firmware that reported 999Tb... They just created the partition the size the case said. Of course those were the least worse scam they feel to. As in other cases (cellphones, batteries, etc) they got even Less than a 256mb pen drive out in the end.
Yes, just go. But you should add that the traveler must be ready to let things go, when traveling in deep China without knowing Chinese. And to be confident. Then serendipity will not be just another trendy word.
And try not to achieve anything on an expected timeframe. Allow for delays; missed trains because you couldn't find a platform or taxis going to the wrong place because your directions were vague, etc.
Crossed the border, got a SIM card with a data plan. Browsed wikitravel, showed taxi driver the characters for where I wanted to go. Then just take another taxi ride to a hotel from google maps, reception spoke English. Rest of the trip went similarly. Had no problems.